TES  YEARS  IN  WASHINGTON: 

OB, 

INSIDE  LITE  AND  SCENES 

IN 

OUR  NATIONAL  CAPITAL 


a 


EMBRACING 


A  PULL  ACCOUNT  OP  THE  MANY  MARVELS  AND  INTERESTING       . 

SIGHTS  OP  WASHINGTON  ;   OF  THE  DAILY  LIFE  AT  THE   WHITE  HOUSE,   BOTH  PAST 

AND    PRESENT;    OF   THE   WONDKRS  AND  INSIDE   WORKINGS    OF   ALL    OUR 

GOVERNMENT  DEPARTMENTS;  AND  DESCRIPTIONS  AND  REVELA- 

TIONS OF  EVERY  PHASE  OF  POLITICAL,  PUBLIC,  AND 

SOCIAL  LIFE  AT  THE  NATION'S  CAPITAL. 


BY  MARY  CLEMMEE,, 

AUTHOR  OP  "  MEMORIALS  OP  ALICE  AND  PH(EBE  CART,"  "A  WOMAN'S  LETTERS 
WASHINGTON,"  ETC.,  ETC. 


TO  WHICH  IS  ADDED  A  FULL  ACCOUNT  OP 

THE  LIFE  AND  DEATH  OF  PRESIDENT  JAMES  A.   GARFIELD, 
BY  J.   L.   SHIPLEY,   A.  M. 


FULLY    ILLUSTRATED 

iife  a  portrait  of  %  ^ntfcor  on  Stttl,  anb  ,£ortg-<Eig|>t  fine  (SngrafahtgB  on  fflBoob. 


[SOLD  BY  SUBSCRIPTION  ONLY.] 

HARTFORD,   CONN.: 

THE  HARTFORD  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 

EXCELSIOR  PUBLISHING  CO.,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 
OHIO  PUBLISHING  CO.,  CLEVELAND,  OHIO. 

1882. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1881,  by 

THE  HARTFORD  PUBLISHING  CO., 
In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


1.  FINE  STEEL-PLATE  PORTRAIT  OF  THE  AUTHOR.    .        .    [Frontispiece.] 

2.  COLUMBIA  SLAVE  PEN, To  face  page  48 

3.  THE  FHEEDMAN'S  SAVINGS  BANK,        .         .....  48 

4.  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTE, *.  48 

5.  MAJOR  L'ENFANT'S  RESTING  PLACE, 48 

6.  THE  NATIONAL  CAPITOL — WASHINGTON,            ....  73 
It  covers  more  than  three  and  a  half  acres.    Over  thirteen  million  dollars  have  thus  far  been 

expended  in  its  erection. 

7.  THE  MARBLE  ROOM — INSIDE  THE  GAPITOL — WASHINGTON,  .        .  95 

8.  THE  SENATE  CHAMBER — INSIDE  THE  CAPITOL — WASHINGTON,  98 

9.  THE  HALL  OF  REPRESENTATIVES — INSIDE  THE  CAPITOL — WASH- 

INGTON,     100 

10.  THE   LADIES'  RECEPTION  ROOM — INSIDE  THE  CAPITOL — WASH- 

INGTON,       ...........  120 

11.  THE    CENTRAL    ROOM,    CONGRESSIONAL    LIBRARY — INSIDE    THE 

CAPITOL — WASHINGTON, 130 

12.  THE  RED  ROOM — INSIDE  THE  WHITE  HOUSE — WASHINGTON,       .  169 

13.  THE  CONSERVATORY — INSIDE  THE  WHITE  HOUSE — WASHINGTON,  174 

14.  THE  CABINET  ROOM — INSIDE  THE  WHITE  HOUSE — WASHINGTON,  238 

15.  THE  BLUB  ROOM — INSIDE  THE  WHITE  HOUSE — WASHINGTON,     .  246 

16.  THE  GREAT  EAST  ROOM — INSIDE  THE  WHITE  HOUSE,  WASHING- 

TON,           258 

17.  THE  GREEN  ROOM — INSIDE  THE  WHITE  HOUSE — WASHINGTON,  .  258 

18.  UNITED  STATES  TREASURY — WASHINGTON,        ....  284 

19.  MAKING  MONEY — THE  ROOM  IN  THE  TREASURY  BUILDING  WHERE 

THE  GREENBACKS  ARE  PRINTED, 819 

20.  AMONG  THE  GREENBACKS— THE  CUTTING  AND  SEPARATING  ROOM 

IN  THE  TREASURY  BUILDING, 322 

(UO 


2031500 


IV  LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 

TO  PACE  PAGE. 

21.  BURNT  TO  ASHES — THE  END  OF  UNCLE  SAM'S  GREENBACKS,       .      3-37 
The  above  is  a  graphic  sketch  of  the  destruction  of  the  worn  and  defaced  currency  constantly 

being  redeemed  by  the  Government,  which  is  here  burned  every  day  at  12  o'clock.  On  one 
occasion  considerably  more  than  one  hundred  million  dollars'  worth  of  bonds  and  green- 
backs were  destroyed  in  this  furnace,  aud  the  burning  of  from  fifty  to  seventy-five  mfllions 
at  a  time  is  a  matter  of  ordinary  occurrence. 

22.  THE  NEW  MARBLE  CASH-ROOM,  UNITED  STATES  TREASURY,  340 

The  most  costly  and  magnificent  room  of  its  kind  in  the  world. 

23.  COUNTING  WORN    AND  DEFACED   GREENBACKS  AND  DETECTING 

COUNTERFEITS, 354 

This  room  is  in  the  Redemption  Bureau,  Treasury-Building.  Over  One  Hundred  Thousand 
Dollars'  worth  of  Fractional  Currency  alone  is  here  daily  received  for  redemption  :  out  of 
which  about  Three  Hundred  and  Fifty  Dollars'  worth  of  counterfeit  money  is  detected, 
stamped,  and  returned. 

24.  THE  LOBBY  OF  THE  SENATE — INSIDE  THE  CAPITOL — WASHINGTON,      382 

25.  DEAD-LETTER  OFFICE,  U.  S.  GENERAL  POST-OFFICE — WASHING- 

TON,      398 

26.  THE  MODEL-ROOM — PATENT  OFFICE — WASHINGTON,        .        .          438 

This  room  contains  the  fruits  of  the  inventive  genius  of  the  whole  nation.    More  than  160,000 
models  are  here  deposited. 

27.  BLOOD-STAINED  CONFEDERATE  BATTLE-FLAGS,  CAPTURED  DURING 

THE  WAR, 462 

Sketched  by  permission  of  the  Government  from  the  large  collection  in  possession  of  the  War 
Department,  at  Washington. 

1.  Black  Flag.  4.  State  and  Resriment  unknown.    [Captured  at  the  Battle  of 

2.  Alabama  Flag.  Gettysburg,  by  the  60th  Regiment  of  New  York  Volunteers.] 

3.  Palmetto  Flag.  5.  State  Colors  of  North  Carolina. 

28.  THE  NEW  BUILDING  NOW  BEING  CONSTRUCTED  FOR  DEPARTMENTS 

OF  STATE,  ARMY,  AND  NAVY — WASHINGTON,       .        .        .          466 

29.  THE  MAIN  HALL  OF  THE  ARMY  MEDICAL  MUSEUM — WASHINGTON,     476 
This  Museum  occupies  the  scene  of  the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln,  in  Ford's  Theatre, 

which  after  that  date  became  the  property  of  the  Government.  It  contains  a  collection  of 
upwards  of  twenty  thousand  rare,  curious  and  interesting  objects,  surpassing  any  similar 
collection  In  the  world.  It  is  visited  annually  by  upwards  of  twenty-five  thousand  persons. 

30.  CURIOSITIES  FROM  THE  ARMX  MEDICAL  MUSEUM,        .        .        .     482 

31.  A  WITHERED  ARM, 482 

Skin,  flesh,  and  bones  complete.  Amputated  by  a  cannon-shot  on  the  battle-field  of  Gettysburg. 
The  shot  carried  the  severed  limb  up  into  the  high  branches  of  a  tree,  where  it  was  subse- 
quently found,  completely  air  and  sun-dried. 

32.  SKULL  OF  A  MAN, 482 

Who  received  an  arrow-wound  in  the  head,  three  gun-shot  flesh-wounds,  one  in  the  arm,  another 

in  the  breast,  and  a  third  in  the  leg.  Seven  days  afterwards  he  was  admitted  to  the  hospital 
at  Fort  Concha,  Texas,  (where  he  subsequently  died,)  after  having  travelled  above  160  miles 
on  the  barren  plains,  mostly  on  foot. 

33.  APACHE  INDIAN  ARROW-HEAD, 482 

Of  soft  hoop-iron.  These  arrows  will  perforate  a  bone  without  causing  the  slightest  fracture, 
where  a  rifle  or  musket-ball  will  flatten ;  and  will  make  a  cut  as  clean  as  the  finest  surgical 
instrument. 

34.  SKULL  OF  LITTLE  BEAR'S  SQUAW, 482 

Perforated  by  seven  bullet-holes.    Killed  in  Wyoming  Territory. 

35.  ALL  THAT  REMAINS  ABOVE  GROUND  OF  JOHN  WILKES  BOOTH,        482 

Being  part  of  the  Vertebrae  penetrated  [A]  by  the  bullet  of  Boston  Corbett.  Strange  freak  of 
fate  that  the  remains  of  Booth  should  find  a  resting-place  under  the  same  roof;  and  but  a 
few  feet  from  the  spot  where  the  fatal  shot  was  fired. 

36.  SKULL  OF  A  SOLDIER, 482 

Wounded  at  Spottsylvania ;  showing  the  splitting  of  a  rifle-ball — one  portion  being  buried  deep 
in  the  brain,  and  the  other  between  the  scalp  and  the  skull.  He  lived  twenty-three  days. 

37.  A  Sioux  PAPPOOSE, 483 

Dr  Indian  infant,  found  in  a  tree  near  Fort  Laramie.  where  it  had  been  buried  (?)  according  to 

the  custom  of  this  tribe. 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS.  V 

TO  FACE  PAGE. 

68.  SKTTLL  OP  AN  INDIAN, 482 

Showing  nine  distinct  sabre  wounds. 

39.  "  OLD  PROBABILITIES'  "  INSTRUMENT  ROOM,          ....     504 

Storm  and  Weather  Signal  Service  Bureau— Washington. 

40.  TROPICAL   FRUITS — INSIDE  THE    GOVERNMENT  CONSERVATORY — 

WASHINGTON, 545 

41.  THE  DOME  AND   SPIRAL  STAIRCASE  ;    RARE  PLANTS  AND  FLOW- 

ERS— INSIDE  THE  GOVERNMENT  CONSERVATORY — WASHINGTON,     546 

42.  TROPICAL  PLANTS    AND   FLOWERS— INSIDE   THE   GOVERNMENT 

CONSERVATORY — WASHINGTON, 548 

43.  THE  VAN  NESS  MANSION,  AND  DAVY  BURNS'  COTTAGE,       .        .     550 

44.  THE  CAPITOL  AS  SEEN  FROM  PENNSYLVANIA  AVE. — WASHINGTON,       550 

45.  VIEW  OF  THE  "  CITY  OF  THE  SLAIN  "    ARLINGTON,         .        .          582 
The  remains  of  over  8,000  soldiers,  killed  during  the  war,  lie  buried  in  this  Cemetery— the  name. 

regiment,  and  date  of  death  of  each  is  painted  on  a  wooden  head-board. 

46.  THE  TOMB  OF  "THE  UNKNOWN" — ARLINGTON 586 

Erected  by  the  Government  to  the  memory  of  Unknown  Soldiers  killed  during  the  War.    It 

bears  the  following  inscription : 

• '  Beneath  this  stone  repose  the  bones  of  Two  Thousand  One  Hundred  and  Eleven  unknown 

soldiers,  gathered  after  the  war,  from  the  fields  of  Bull  Run  and  the  route  to  the  Rappa- 

hannock.    Their  remains  could  not  be  identified ;  but  their  names  and  deaths  are 

recorded  in  the  archives  of  their  country,  and  its  grateful  citizens  honor 

them  as  of  their  noble  army  of  Martyrs.    May  they  rest 

in  peace!    September,  A.  D.  1866." 

47.  PORTRAIT  OP  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  THE  MARTYR  PRESIDENT,        .     588 

Engraved  from  a  recent  photograph. 


48.  PORTRAIT  OP  MRS.  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  WIFE  OP  THE  MARTYR     600 

PRESIDENT, 

Engraved  from  a  recent  photograph. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  L 

FROM   THE  VERY  BEGINNING.  PJ 

The  Young  Surveyor's  Dream— A  Vision  of  the  Future  Capital— The  United 
States  Government  on  Wheels — Ambitious  Offers — The  Rival  Rivers — Tempo- 
ra 'y  Lodgings  for  Eleven  Years— Old-Fashioned  Simplicity— A  Great  Alan's 
Modesty— Conflicting  Claims — A  Convincing  Fact — The  Dreadful  Quakers — 
A  Condescending  Party— A  Slight  Amendment— An  Old  Bill  Brought  to 
Light  Again — Tl  e  Future  Strangely  Foreshadowed — A  Dinner  of  Some  Con- 
sequence— How  it  was  Done — Really  a  Stranger — A  Nice  Proposal — Sweeten- 
ing the  Pill— A  "Revulsion  of  Stomach," 

CHAPTER  II. 

CROSS   PURPOSES   AND   QUEER    SPECULATIONS. 

Born  of  Much  Bother — Undefined  Apprehensions — Debates  on  the  Coming  City 
— Old  World  Examples — Sir  James  Expresses  an  Opinion — A  Dream  of  the 
Distant  West — An  Old-time  Want — A  Curious  Statement  of  Fact — Where  is 
the  Center  of  Population — An  Important  Proclamation — Original  Land 
Owners — Well-worn  Patents — Getting  on  with  Pugnacious  Planters — Obsti- 
nate David  Burns — A  "Widow's  Mite"  of  Some  Magnitude — How  the 
Scotchman  was  Subjugated — A  Rather  "Forcible  Argument,"  . 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE  WORK  BEGUN   IN  EARNEST. 

Washington's  Faith  in  the  Future — Mr.  Sparks  is  "Inclined  to  Think" — A< 
Slight  Miscalculation — Theoretical  Spartans — Clinging  to  Old  World  Glories 
— Jefferson  Acts  the  Critic — He  Communicates  Some  Ideas — Models  of  An- 
tiquity— Babylon  Revived — Difficulty  in  Satisfying  a  Frenchman's  Soul — The 
Man  Who  Planned  the  Capital— Who  Was  L' Enfant  ?— His  Troubles— His 
Dismissal — His  Personal  Appearance,  Old  Age,  Death,  and  Burial  Place — 
His  Successor — A  Magnificent  Plan — A  Record  Which  Can  Never  Perish — 
An  Overpaid  Quaker — Jefferson  Expresses  His  Sentiments — A  Sable  Frank 
lin — The  Negro  Engineer,  Benjamin  Bancker — A  Chance  for  a  Monument,  . 

Cvi) 


CONTENTS.  vii 

CHAPTER  IV. 

OLD    WASHINGTON.  PAGE, 

How  the  City  Was  Built—"  A  Matter  of  Moonshine  " — Calls  for  Paper— Besieg- 
ing Congressmen — How  They  Raised  the  Money — The  Government  Requires 
Sponsors — Birth  of  the  Nation's  Capital — Seventy  Years  Ago  in  Washington — 
Graphic  Picture  of  Early  Times — A  Much-Marrying  City — Unwashed  Virgin- 
ian Belles — Stuck  in  the  Mud — Extraordinary  Religious  Services,  .  .  .51 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE   CAPITAL   OF   THE   NATION. 

Expectations  Disappointed — Funds  Low  and  People  Few — Slow  Progress  of  the 
City — A  Question  of  Importance  Discussed — Generous  Proposition  of  George 
Washington — Faith  Under  Difficulties — Transplanting  an  Entire  College — An 
Old  Proposition  in  a  New  Shape— What  Washington  "Society"  Lacks- 
Perils  of  the  Way— A  Long  Plain  of  Mud— Egyptian  Dreariness — The  End 
of  an  Expensive  Canal — The  Water  of  Tiber  Creek— Divided  Allegiance  of 
Old— The  Stirring  of  a  Nation's  Heart— A  Personal  Interest,  .  .  62 

CHAPTER  VL 

THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  PRESENT  DAY. 

Hopes  Realized— Washington  in  1873— Major  L'Enfant's  Dream— Old  and  New 
— "  Modern  Improvements  " — A  City  of  Palaces — The  Capital  in  all  its  Glory 
— Traces  of  the  War — Flowers  on  the  Ramparts — Under  the  Oaks  of  Arling- 
ton—Ten Years  Ago — The  Birth  of  a  Century— The  Reign  of  Peace,  .  72 

CHAPTER  VH. 

WHAT   MADE   NEW   WASHINGTON. 

Municipal  Changes — Necessity  of  Reform — The  "  Organic  Act "  Passed — Con- 
test for  the  Governorship  of  Columbia  District — Mr.  Henry  D.  Cooke  Ap- 
pointed— Board  of  Public  Works  Constituted — Great  Improvements  Made — 
Opposition— The  Board  and  Its  Work, 76 

CHAPTER  Vm. 

BUILDING   THE   CAPITOL. 

Various  Plans  for  the  Building — Jefferson  Writes  to  the  Commissioners — "  Poor 
Hallett"  and  His  Plan — Wanton  Destruction  by  the  British,  A.  D.  1814 — • 
The  Site  Chosen  by  Washington  Himself — Imposing  Ceremonies  at  the  Foun- 
dation— Dedicatory  Inscription  on  the  Silver  Plate — Interesting  Festivities — 
Extension  of  the  Building — Daniel  Webster's  Inscription — His  Eloquent  and 
Patriotic  Speech— Mistaken  Calculations — First  Session  of  Representatives 
Sitting  in  "the  Oven" — Old  Capitol  Prison — Immense  Outlay  upon  the 
Wings  and  Dome— Compared  with  St.  Peter's  and  St.  Paul's— The  Goddess 
of  Liberty— The  Congressional  Librarv— What  Ought  to  be  Done,  •  83 


VU1  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

INSIDE  THE   CAPITOL.  PAOB 

A.  Visit  to  the  Capitol— The  Lower  Hall— Its  Cool  Tranquility— Artistic  Treas- 
ures—The President's  and  Vice-President's  Rooms— The  Marble  Room— The 
Senate  Chamber — "  Men  I  Have  Known  " — Hamlin — Foote — Foster — Wade 
— Colfax— Wilson— The  Rotunda— Great  Historical  Paintings— The  Old  Hall 
of  Representatives— The  New  Hall— The  Speaker's  Room— Native  Art— 
"The  Star  of  Empire"— A  National  Picture, 92 

CHAPTER  X. 

OUTSIDE  THE  CAPITOL. 
The  Famous  Bronze  Doors — The  Capito!   Grounds — Statue  of   Washington 

Criticised — Horace   Greenough's  Defence  of  the  Statue — Picturesque  Scenery 
,    Around  the  Capitol— The  City  and  Suburbs— The  Public  Reservation— The 

Smithsonian  Institution — The  Potomac  and  the  Eights  of  Arlington.      .        .104 

CHAPTER  XI. 

ART  TREASURES   OP   THE   CAPITOL. 

Arrival  of  a  Solitary  Lady — "  The  Pantheon  of  America  " — H  Penserosa — Mil- 
ton's Ideal— Dirty  Condition  of  the  House  of  Representatives— The  Goddess 
of  Melancholy — Vinnie  Ream's  Statue  of  Lincoln — Its  Grand  Defects — Nec- 
essary Qualifications  for  a  Sculptor — The  Bust  of  Lincoln  by  Mrs.  Ames — 
General  Greene  and  Roger  Williams — Barbarous  Garments  of  Modern  Times 
— Statues  of  Jonathan  Trumbull  and  Roger  Sherman — Bust  of  Kosciusco — 
Pulling  his  Nose — Alexander  Hamilton — Fate  of  Senator  Burr — Statue  of 
Baker — His  Last  Speech  Prophetic — The  Glory  of  a  Patriotic  Example — The 
Lesson  which  Posterity  Learns — Horatio  Stone,  the  Sculptor — Neglected  Con- 
dition of  the  Capitol  Statuary — Curious  Clock — Grotesque  Plaster  linage  of 
Liberty— Webster— Clay— Adams— The  Pantheon  at  Rome— The  French 

Pantheon, 109 

CHAPTER  XH. 

WOMEN   WITH    CLAIMS. 

The  Senate  Reception-Room — The  People  who  Haunt  it — Republican  "  Ladies 
in  Waiting  " — "  Women  with  Claims  " — Their  Heroic  Persistency — A  Widow 
and  Children  in  Distress — Claim  Agents — The  Committee  of  Claims — A 
Kind-Hearted  Senator's  Troubles — Buttonholing  a  Senator — A  Lady  of  En- 
ergy— Resolved  to  Win — An  "  Office  Brokeress  " — A  Dragon  of  a  Woman — 
A  Lady  who  is  Feared  if  not  Respected — Her  Unfortunate  Victims — Carrying 
"  Her  Measure  " — The  Beautiful  Petitioner — The  Cloudy  Side  of  Her  Char- 
acter— Her  Subtle  Dealings — Her  Successes, 120 

CHAPTER  XHI. 

THE    CONGRESSIONAL   LIBRARY. 

Inside  the  Library— The  Librarian— Sketch  of  Mr.  Spofford— How  Congres- 
eional  Speeches  are  Manufactured — "  Ppofford "  in  Congress — The  Library 


CONTENTS.  IX 

PAGE. 

Building— Diagram— Dimensions  of  the  Hall— The  Iron  Book  Cases — The 
Law  Library— Five  Miles  of  Book  Shelves— Silent  Study— "  Abstracting  " 
Books— Amusing  Adventure— A  Senator  in  a  Quandary— Making  Love  Un- 
der Difficulties— Library  Regulations— Privileged  Persons— Novels  and  their 
Readers — Books  of  Reference — Compared  with  the  British  Museum — Curious 
Old  Newspapers — Files  of  Domestic  and  Foreign  Papers — One  Hundred  De- 
funct Journals — An  Incident  of  the  War  of  1814 — Putting  it  to  the  Vote — 
"Carried  Unanimously "—35,000  Volumes  Destroyed— Treasurers  of  Art 
Consumed— The  New  Library— The  Next  Appropriation,  .  .  .  .137 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

A   VISIT  TO   THE   NEW   LAW   LIBKAKY. 

How  a  Library  was  Offered  to  Congress — Mr.  King's  Proposal — An  Eye  to  The- 
ology— The  Smithsonian  Library  Transferred — The  Good  Deeds  of  Peter 
Force — National  Documents — Eliot's  Indian  Bible — Literary  Treasures — The 
Lawyers  Want  a  Library  for  Themselves — The  Finest  Law  Library  in  the 
.  World— First  Edition  of  Blackstone— Report  of  the  Trial  of  Cagliostro, 
Rohan  and  La  Motte — Marie  Antoinette's  Diamond  Necklace — A  Long  Life- 
Service— An  Architect  Buried  Beneath  his  own  Design— "  Underdone  Pie- 
crust " — Reminiscences  of  Daniel  Webster  and  the  Girard  Will,  .  .  .  138 

CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   HEAVEN  OF   LEGAL   AMBITION — THE   SUPREME   COURT   ROOM. 

Memories  of  Clay,  Webster,  and  Calhoun— Legal  Giants  of  the  Past— Stately 
Serenity  of  the  Modern  Court—"  Wise  Judgment  and  Wine  Dinners  "—The 
Supreme  Court  in  Session — Soporific  Influences — A  Glimpse  of  the  Veritable 
"  Bench  "—The  Ladies'  Gallery— The  Chief  Justices  of  the  Past— His 
Apotheosis— Chief-Justice  Chase— Black-Robed  Dignitaries— An  Undignified 
Procession — The  "  Crier  "  in  Court — Antique  Proclamation — The  Consulta- 
tion-Room— Gowns  of  Office — Reminiscence  of  Judge  McLean — "Uncle 
Henry  and  his  Charge  "—Fifty  Years  in  Office, 144 

CHAPTER  XVL 
THE  "MECCA"  OF  THE  AMERICAN. 

The  Center  of  a  Nation's  Hopes— Stirring  Reminiscences  of  the  Capitol— His- 
tory Written  in  Stone — Patriotic  Expression  of  Charles  Sumner — Building 
"  for  all  Time  "— "  This  our  Fathers  Did  for  Us  "—The  Interest  of  Human- 
ity—A Secret  Charm  for  a  Thoughtful  Mind— An  Idea  of  Equality— The 
Destiny  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes — A  Mother's  Ambition— The  Dying  Soldier,  148 
CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE   CAPITOL MORNING   SIGHTS   AND   SCENES. 

The  Capitol  in  Spring— A  Magic  Change — Arrival  of  Visitors— A  New  Race 
— "  Billing  and  Cooing  "—Lovers  at  the  Capitol— A  Dream  of  Perpetual 
Spring — Spending  the  Honeymoon  in  Washington — New  Edition  of  David 
Copperfield  and  Dora—"  Very  Young  "—Divided  Affections  :  The  New  Bride 


X  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

— Jonathan  and  Jane — Memories  of  a  Wedding  Dress — An  Interview  with  a 
Bride— "Two  Happy  Idiots  "—A  Walk  in  the  City— President  Grant— The 
Foreign  Ambassadors — "Beau"  Hickman — An  Erratic  Genius — Walt  Whitman 
the  Poet — A  "Loafer  "of  Renown — Poets  at  Home— Piatt — Burroughs— Harriet 
Prescott  Spofford — Sumner  and  Chase — Tiresome  Men — How  to  Love  a  Tree,  153 

CHAPTER  XVni. 

FAIR   WASHINGTON — A  RAMBLE   IN  EARLY  SPRING. 

Washington  Weather — Sky  Scenery — Professor  Tyndall  Expresses  an  Opinion 
—A  Picture  of  Beauty— Prejudiced  Views— Birds  of  Rock  Creek— The  Par- 
sonage— A  Scene  of  Tranquil  Beauty — A  Washington  May — Charms  of  the 
Season— Mowers  at  Work— The  Public  Parks— Frolics  of  the  Little  Ones- 
Strawberry  Festivals — "  Flower  Gathering," 162 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

INSIDE  THE  WHITE  HOUSE — SHADOWS  OF  THE  PAST. 
Haunted  Houses — Shadows  of  the  Past — Touching  Memories — The  Little 
Angels  Born  There — A  State  of  Perpetual  Dampness — Dingy  Aspect  of  a 
Monarch's  Palace — Outside  the  White  House — A  Peep  Inside  the  Mansion — 
The  Emperor  of  Japan  Supersedes  the  Punch-Bowl — The  Unfinished  "  Ban- 
queting-Hall  " — Glories  of  a  Levee — Magnificent  Hospitalities — A  Comfortable 
Dining-Room — A  Lady  of  Taste — An  American  "Baronial  Hall" — The 
Furniture  of  Another  Generation — A  Valuable  Steward — A  Professor  of  Gas- 
tronomy— Paying  the  Professor  and  Providing  the  Dinner — Feeding  the 
Celebrities — Mrs.  Lincoln's  Unpopular  Innovations — Fifteen  Hundred  Dollars 
for  a  Dinner — How  Prince  Arthur,  of  England,  was  Entertained — Domestic 
Economy — "Not  Enough  Silver" — A  Tasty  Soup — The  Recipe  for  an  Aristo- 
cratic Stew — Having  a  "  Nice  Time" — Hatred  of  Flummery — An  Admirer  of 
Pork  and  Beans  and  Slap-jacks — A  Presidential  Reception — "Ready  for  the 
Festival — Splendor,  Weariness  and  Indigestion — Paying  the  Penalty — In  the 
Conservatory — Domestic  Arrangements — Reminiscence  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  .  167 

CHAPTER  XX. 

LADIES  OP   THE  WHITE   HOUSE. 

A  Morning  Dream— Wives  and  Daughters  of  the  Presidents— An  Average 
Matron  of  the  18th  Century— Educational  Disadvantages— A  Well-Regulated 
A  Lady — Useful  Wife — Advantages  of  Having  a  Distinguished  Husband — A 
Modern  Lucretia — Washington's  Inauguration  Suit — An  Awkward  Position 
for  a  Lady — Festivities  in  Franklin  Square! — Transporting  the  Household 
Gods — Keeping  Early  Hours — Primitive  Customs — Much-Shaken  Hands — Re- 
membrances of  a  Past  Age— Very  Questionable  Humility— The  Room  in 
which  Washington  Died— Days  of  Widowhood— A  Wife's  Congratulations— 
A  True  Woman — Domestic  Affairs  at  the  White  House — An  Unfinished  Man- 
sion— Interesting  Details — A  Woman's  Influence — A  Monument  Wanted — De- 
votion of  a  Husband — The  "Single  Life" — Disappointed  Belles — An  Extra- 
ordinary Reception — Blacked  F:-  Own  Boots — A  Daughter's  Affection,  .  177 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER  XXL  FASH. 

WIVES   OF   THE   PRESIDENTS — LIFE   AT   THE   WHITE   HOUSE. 

A  Social  Queen—"  The  Most  Popular  Person  in  the  United  States  "—The  Slow 
Days  of  Old— Traveling  Under  Difficulties — Political  Pugnacity— Formality 
versus  Hospitality — Big  Dishes  Laughed  at — A  Foreign  Minister  Criticises — 
Advantages  of  a  Good  Memory — Funny  Adventure  of  a  Eustic  Youth — A 
Strange  Pocketful— Putting  Him  at  His  Ease— Doleful  Visage  of  a  New  Pres- 
ident— Getting  Rid  of  a  Burden — A  Brave  Lady — Waiting  in  Suspense — 
Taking  Care  of  Cabinet  Papers— Watching  and  Waiting— Flight— Unscrew- 
ing the  Picture— After  the  War— Brilliant  Receptions— Mrs.  Madison's  Snuff- 
Box—Clay  Takes  a  Pinch—"  This  is  my  Polisher !"— Two  Plain  Old  Ladies 
from  the  West— They  Depart  in  Peace— Days  of  Trouble  and  Care — Manu- 
scripts Purchased  by  Congress — Last  Days  of  a  Good  Woman — Mrs.  Monroe 
— A  Severe  and  Aristocratic  Woman — Madame  Lafayette  in  Prison,  .  .  192 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

NOTED   WOMEN  OF   WASHINGTON — A  CHAPTER   OF   GOSSIP. 

A  Traveling  Lady — Life  in  Russia — A  Modern  American  Minister — A  long  and 
Lonely  Journey — The  Court  of  St  James — Peculiar  Waists — Costume  of  an 
Ancient  Belle — Fearful  and  Wonderful  Attire  of  a  Beau — "  A  suit  of  Steel " 
—An  Ascendant  Star— A  Man  Who  Hid  his  Feelings— The  Candidate  at  a 
Cattle  Show — Charles's  Opinion  of  His  Mother — How  a  Lady  "  Amused  "  Her 
Declining  Days— A  Woman's  Influence— Politics  and  Piety  Disagree— Why 
the  General  Didn't  Join  the  Church— A  Head  "Full  of  Politics  "—Swearing 
Some— The  President  Becomes  a  Good  Boy— Domestic  Tendencies,  .  204 

CHAPTER  XXIH. 

SCENES   AT   THE   WHITE    HOUSE — MEN   AND   WOMEN    OF   NOTE. 

Widows  "  at  par  " — Four  Sonless  Presidents — Supported  by  Flattery — A  Deli- 
cate Constitution — Living  to  a  Respectable  Age — Teaching  Her  Grandson  How 
to  Fight — A  Pathetic  Reminiscence — A  Perfect  Gentlewoman — Obeying  St. 
Paul— A  Woman  Who  "  Kept  Silence  "— "  Sarah  Knows  Where  It  Is  " — 
Three  Queens  in  the  Background— A  Very  Handsome  Woman— A  Lady's 
Heroism— A  Man  Who  Kept  to  His  Post— A  Life  in  the  Savage  Wilderness— 
A  Life's  Devotion — The  Colonel's  Brave  Wife — Objecting  to  the  Presidency — 
An  Inclination  for  Retirement — The  Penalty  of  Greatness — Death  in  the 
White  House— A  Wife's  Prayers— A  New  Rey/me—Thc  Clothier's  Apprentice 
and  the  School  Teacher— The  Future  President  Builds  His  Own  House- 
Domestic  Happiness— Twenty-seven  Years  of  Married  Life— Home  "Comforts" 
at  the  White  House— The  Memory  of  a  Loving  Wife,  .  .  .  .218 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE   WHITE   HOUSE   DURING   THE   WAR. 

Under  a  Cloud — "  A  Woman  Among  a  Thousand  " — Revival  of  By-gone  Days 
—Another  Lady  of  the  White  House— A  "  Golden  Blonde  "—Instinct  Alike 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

with  Power  and  Grace — A  Fun-Loving  Romp — Harriet  with  her  Wheelbarrow 
of  Wood— A  Deed  of  Kindness— The  Wheel  Turns  Round— Gay  Doings  at 
the  Capital — Rival  Claims  for  a  Lady's  Hand — Reigning  at  the  White  House 
—Doing  Double  Duty — Marriage  of  Harriet  Lane — As  Wife  and  Mother — 
Mrs.  Abraham  Lincoln— Standing  Alone— A  Time  of  Trouble  and  Perplexity 
— Rumors  of  War — Whispers  of  Treason — Awaiting  the  Event — A  Life-long 
Ambition  Fulfilled — The  Nation  Called  to  Arms — What  the  President's  Wife 
Did— The  Dying  and  the  Dead— Arrival  of  Troops— The  Lonely  Man  at  the 
White  House— An  Example  of  Selfishness— Petty  Economies— The  Back  Door 
of  the  White  House — An  Injured  Individual — Death  of  Willie  Lincoln — Injus- 
tice which  Mrs.  Lincoln  Suffered— The  Rabble  in  the  White  House— Valuables 
Carried  Away — Big  Boxes  and  Much  Goods — Mrs.  Lincoln  Disconsolate — 
Missing  Treasures— Faults  of  a  President's  Wife, 231 

CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE   WHITE   HOUSE   NOW. 

After  the  War— A  Contrast— Secretly  Burying  the  Dead— A  Wife  of  Seventeen 
Years — Midnight  Studies — Broken  Down — A  party  of  Grandchildren — "  God's 
Best  Gift  to  Man" — The  Woman  Who  Taught  the  President — Doing  the  Hon- 
ors at  the  White  House— Traces  of  the  Soldiers— A  State  of  Dirt  and  Ruin- 
Mrs.  Patterson's  Calico  Dress — In  the  Diary — A  Nineteenth  Century  Wonder 
— How  the  Old  Carpets  were  Patched — How  $30,000  were  Spent — Buying  the 
Furniture — Working  in  Hot  Weather — Very  Good  Dinners — Doors  Open  to 
the  Mob — Sketching  a  Banquet — The  Portraits  of  the  Presidents — The 
Impeachment  Trial — Peace  in  the  Family — The  Grant  Dynasty — Looking 
Home-like—Mrs.  Grant  at  Home— What  Might  Be  Done,  if— How  a  Certain 
Young  Lady  was  Spoilt — Brushing  Away  "the  Dew  of  Innocence,"  .  .  243 

CHAPTER    XXVI. 

RECEPTION  DAY  AT  THE  WHITE  HOUSE — GLIMPSES  OF  LIFE. 
Feeling  Good-Natured — Looking  After  One's  Friends— Ready  to  Forgive — Mr. 
Grant's  "Likeable  Side" — Rags  and  Tatters  Departed — The  Work  of  Relic- 
Hunters — Eight  Presidents,  All  in  a  Row — Shadows  of  the  Departed — A  Pres- 
ent from  the  Sultan  of  Turkey — A  List  of  Finery — A  Scene  Not  Easily  For- 
gotten—How They  Wept  for  Their  Martyr— Talcs  which  a  Room  Might  Tell 
— Underneath  the  Gold  and  Lace — The  Census  of  Spittoons — "  A  Horror  in 
Our  Land  " — The  Shadow  of  Human  Nature — Two  "  Quizzing  "  Ladies — An 
Illogical  Dame— Her  "  Precarious  Organ  "—A  Lady  of  Many  Colors—"  A 
New  Woman  "—A  Vegetable  Comparison— The  Lady  of  the  Manor— Women 
Who  are  Not  Ashamed  of  Womanhood— Observed  and  Admired  of  All- 
Sketch  of  a  Perfect  Woman — After  the  Lapse  of  Generations — The  "  German  " 
—The  "  Withering  "  of  Many  American  Women— Full  Dress  and  No  Dress— 
What  the  Princess  Ghika  Thinks— A  Young  Girl's  Dress—"  That  Dreadful 
Woman  " — The  Resolution  of  a  Young  Man, 256 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

INAUGURATION  DAY  AT  WASHINGTON.  PAG& 
My  Own  Private  Opinion— The  Little  "Sons  of  War "  Feeling  Bad— Brutal 
Mothers — Our  Heroes — Later  Festivities — A  Lively  Time — The  Mighty  Drura- 
M;ijor— "  Taken  for  a  Nigger  "—Magnificent  Display — The  Oldest  Regiment 
in  the  States— Sketches  of  Well-known  Men— Blacque  Bey— Full  Turkish 
Costume — The  Japanese  Minister — The  Supreme  Court — Congress  Alive  Again 
—The  Valedictory— Taking  the  Oath— "The  Little  Gentleman  in  the  Big 
Chair"— His  Little  Speech— His  Wife  and  Family  Behind— The  New  President 
—Memories  of  Another  Scene— The  Curtain  Falls, 269 

CHAPTER  XXVHL 

A   PEEP   AT    AN   INAUGURATION   BALL. 

How  Sixty  Thousand  Dollars  were  Spent— Something  Wrong :  "  Twas  Ever 
Thus  " — A  Fine  Opportunity  for  a  Few  Naughty  Words — Lost  Jewels — The 
Colored  Folks  in  a  Fix— Six  Thousand  People  Clamoring  for  Their  Clothes! 
— A  Magnificent  "Grab" — Weeping  on  Window-ledges — Left  Desolate — 
Walking  under  Difficulties— The  Exploit  of  Two  Old  Gentlemen— Horace 
Greeley  Loses  his  Old  White  Hat — He  says  Naughty  Words  of  Washington — 
A  Little  Too  Cold — Gay  Decorations — Modesty  in  Scanty  Garments — The 
President  Frozen — Ladies  of  Distinction — Half-frozen  Beauties — Why  and 
Wherefore  ?— A  Stolid  Tanner  Who  Fought  his  Way, 27* 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

THE   UNITED  STATES  TREASURY — ITS  HISTORY. 

The  Responsibilities  and  Duties  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury— Three  Extra- 
ordinary Men — Hamilton  Makes  an  Honest  Proposal — The  Mint  at  Philadel- 
phia— A  Little  Personal  Abuse — The  Secretary  Borrows  Twenty  Dollars — 
Modern  Greediness — The  Genius  Becomes  a  Lawyer — Burning  of  Records — 
Hunting  for  Blunders  and  Frauds — The  Treasury  Building — A  Little  Variety 
—A  Vision  of  Much  Money— Old  Debts  Raked  Up — Signs  of  the  Times— The 
National  Currency  Act — Enormous  Increase  of  the  National  Debt — Facts  and 
Figures — The  Credit  of  the  Government  Sustained — President  Grant's  Rule — 
George  S.  Boutwell  Made  Secretary — Great  Expectations,  .  .  .  28* 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

INSIDE  THE  TREASURY — THE  HISTORY  OP  A  DOLLAR. 
"Old  Hickory  "  Erects  his  Cane— "  Put  the  Building  Right  Here"— A  Very 
Costly  Building— The  Workers  Within— The  Business  of  Three  Thousand 
People— The  Mysteries  of  the  Treasury— Inside  the  Kooms— Mary  Harris's 
Revenge — The  "  Drones  "  in  the  Hive — Making  Love  in  Office  Hours— Flirta- 
tions in  Public — A  List  of  Miserable  Sinners — A  Pitiful  Ancient  Dame — 
Women's  Work  in  the  Treasury — The  Bureau  of  Printing  and  Engraving — 
Dealing  in  Big  Figures— The  Story  of  a  Paper  Dollar— In  the  Upper  Floor— 
The  Busy  Workers— Night  Work— Where  the  Paper  is  Made— The  "  Local- 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

ized  Blue  Fibre  "—The  Obstacle  to  the  Counterfeiter— The  Automatic  Regis- 
ter— Keeping  Watch — The  Counters  and  Examiners — An  Armed  Escort — 
Varieties  of  Printing— The  Contract  with  Adams'  Express— Printing  the 
Notes  and  Currency— Internal  Revenue  Stamps— Manufacturing  the  Plates— 
The  Engraving  Division — "Men  of  Many  Minds  " — Delicate  Operations — A 
Pressure  of  Five  or  Six  Tons — The  Plate  Complete — "  Re-entering  "  a  Plate 
— An  "  Impression  " — How  Old  Plates  are  Used  Up — A  Close  Inspection — 
Defying  Imitation — The  Geometric  Lathe, 302 

CHAPTER    XXXI. 

THE  WORKERS  IN  THE  TREASITBY — HOW  THE  MONEY  IS  MADE. 
The  Dollar  with  the  Counters— In  the  Tubs— Getting  a  Wetting— Servants  of 
Necessity — That  Scorching  Roof — Brown  Paper  Bonnets — A  State  of  Damp- 
ness— Squaring  Accounts — Superintending  the  Work — The  Face-printing  Di- 
vision— The  United  States  "  Sealer  " — Printing  Cigar-Stamps  and  Gold-Notes 
of  Many  Colors— With  a  Begrimed  Face— The  Fiery  Little  Brazier— What 
the  Man  Does — The  Woman's  Work — The  Automatic  Register — An  Observer 
Without  a  Soul— Our  Damp  Little  Dollar— The  Drying  Room— The  First 
Wrinkles — Looking  Wizened  and  Old — Rejuvenating  a  Dollar — Underneath 
Two  Hundred  and  Forty  Tons — Smooth  and  Polished — Precious  to  the  Touch 
—A  Virgin  Dollar*— The  "  Sealer "  at  Work— Mutilated  Paper— What  the 
Women  are  paid— The  Surface-Sealing  Division— Seal  Printing— The  Aristo- 
cratic Green  Seal — The  Numbering  Division — Dividing  the  Dollars — Snowy 
Aprons  and  Delicate  Ribbons — Needling  the  Sheet — A  Blade  that  Does  not 
Fail — Sorting  the  Notes — The  Manipulation  of  the  Ladies — The  Dollar  "  In 
its  Little  Bed  "— Dollar  on  Dollar— "Awaiting  the  Final  Call,"  .  .  .317 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 

THE    LAST    DAYS    OP   A  DOLLAR. 

Ready  for  the  World — Starting  Right — Forty  Busy  Maids  and  Matrons — Count- 
ing Out  the  Money — Human  Machines — A  Lady  Counting  for  a  Dozen  Years 
Fifty  Thousand  Notes  in  a  Day — Counting  Four  Thousand  Notes  in  Twenty 
Minutes— What  has  Passed  Through  Some  Fingers— Big  Figures— Packing 
Away  the  Dollars— The  Cash  Division— The  Marble  Cash-Room— The  Great 
Iron  Vault — Where  Uncle  Sam  Keeps  His  Money — Some  Nice  Little  Packages 
— Taking  it  Coolly — One  Hundred  Millions  of  Dollars  in  Hand — Some  Little 
White  Bags— The  Gold  Taken  from  the  Banks  of  Richmond— A  Distinction 
Without  a  Difference— The  Secret  of  the  Locks— The  Hydraulic  Elevator-- 
Sending the  Money  off — Begrimed,  Demoralized,  and  Despoiled — Where  is  Our 
Pretty  Dollar  ?— The  Redemption  Division— Counting  Mutilated  Currency- 
Women  at  Work— Sorting  Old  Greenbacks— Three  Hundred  Counterfeit  Dol- 
lars Daily— Detecting  Bad  Notes—"  Short,"  "  Over,"  and  "  Counterfeit  "—Dif- 
ficulty of  Counterfeiting  Fresh  Notes — Vast  Amounts  Sent  for  Redemption — 
Thirty-one  Million  Dollars  in  One  Year— The  Assistant  Treasurer  at  New 
York — The  Cancelling  Room — The  Counter's  Report — The  Bundle  in  a  Box 


CONTENTS.  XV 

PAGE. 

Awkward  Responsibility— "Punching  "  Old  Dollars — The  Funeral  of  the  Dol- 
lar—The Burning,  Fiery  Furnace— The  End  of  the  Dollar,     .        .        .        .326 

CHAPTER  XXXTTT. 

THE   GREAT   CASH-BOOM — THE   WATCH-DOG   OF   THE   TREASURY. 

No  Need  for  Dirty  Money— The  Flowers  of  July— Money  Affairs— The  Great 
Cash-Room— Its  Marble  Glories— A  Glance  Inside— The  Beautiful  Walls— A 
Good  Deal  of  Very  Bad  Taste— Only  Made  of  Plaster— "The  Watch  Dog" 
of  the  Treasury— The  Custodian  of  the  Cash— A  Broken-nosed  Pitcher— Ink 
for  the  Autographs — His  Ancient  Chair — "  The  General " — "  Crooked,  Crotch- 
ety, and  Great-hearted  " — "  Principles  "  and  Pantaloons — Below  the  Surface-^ 
An  Unpaintable  Face — An  Object  of  Personal  Curiosity — Dick  and  Dolly  pay 
the  General  a  Visit — How  the  Thing  is  Done — Getting  his  Autograph — A 
Specimen  for  the  Folks  at  Home — Where  the  Treasurer  Sleeps — Going  the 
Bound  at  Night — Making  Assurance  Sure — Awakened  by  a  Strong  Impression 
— Sleepless — In  the  "  Small  Hours  " — Finding  the  Door  Open — A  Careless 
Clerk— The  Care  of  Eight  Hundred  Millions — On  the  Alert— The  Auditors — 
The  Solicitor's  Office — The  Light-House  Board— The  Coast  Survey— Internal 
Revenue  Department, 339 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

WOMAN'S   WORK   IN   THE   DEPARTMENTS — WHAT   THEY   DO  AND   HOW   THEY 

DO   IT. 

Women  Experts  in  the  Treasury — Their  Superiority  to  Men — Money  Burnt  in 
the  Chicago  Fire — Cases  of  Valuable  Rubbish — Identifying  Burnt  Greenbacks 
— The  Ashes  of  the  Boston  Fire — From  the  Bottom  of  the  Mississippi — Mrs. 
Patterson  Saves  a  "  Pile  "  of  Money — Money  in  the  Toes  of  Stockings — In  the 
Stomachs  of  Men  and  Beasts — From  the  Bodies  of  the  Murdered  and  Drowned 
—One  Hundred  and  Eighty  Women  at  Work— "  The  Broom  Brigade" — 
Scrubbing  the  Floors— Stories  which  Might  be  Told— Meditating  Suicide — The 
Struggle  of  Life— How  a  Thousand  Women  are  Employed— Speaking  of  Their 
Characters— Miss  Grundy  of  New  York— Women  of  Business  Capacity— A 
Lady  as  Big  as  Two  Books  ! — A  Disgrace  to  the  Nation — Working  for  Two, 
Paid  for  One— Beaten  by  a  Woman— The  Post-Office  Department— Folding 
"  Dead  Letters  "—A  Woman  Who  has  Worked  Well—"  Sorrow  Does  Not 
Kill  "—The  Patent  Office— Changes  Which  Should  be  Made, .  .  .  .350 

CHAPTER  XXXV. 
WOMEN'S  WORK  IN  THE  TREASURY — HOW  APPOINTMENTS  ARE  MADE. 

The  Difference  Between  Men  and  Women — A  Shameful  and  Disgraceful  Fraud 
—What  Two  Women  Did— Cutting  Down  the  Salaries  of  Women— The  First 
Woman-Clerk  in  the  Treasury— Taking  Her  Husband's  Place— The  Feminine 
Tea-Pot — "  A  Woman  can  Use  Scissors  Better  than  a  Man  " — Profound  Dis- 
covery ! — "  She'll  do  it  Cheaper — Besieged  by  Women — Scenes  of  Distress  and 
Trouble— Infamous  Intrigues— The  Baseness  of  Certain  Senators—  Virtue 
Spattered  witli  Mud— Secret  Doings  in  High  Places— Sounding  Magnanimous 
— Passing  the  Examination — The  Irrepressible  Masculine  Tyrants — Up  to  the 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Mark,  but  not  Winning — An  Alarming  Suggestion — Men  Versus  Women — 
Tampering  with  the  Scales, 369 

CHAPTER  XXXVL 

GOVERNMENT   OFFICIAL   LIFE — HOW    PLACE   AND   POWER   ARE   WON. 

Keeping  his  Eye  Open— The  Sweet  and  Winning  Ways  of  Mr.  Parasite— In 

Office— The  Fault  of  the  '  People  "  and  "  my  Friends  "—Pulling  the  Wool 

over  the  Eyes  of  the  Innocent — Writing  Letters  in  a  Big  Way — The  "  Dark 

Ways  "  of  Wicked  Mr.  P A  Suspicious  Yearning  for  Private  Life — The 

Sweets  of  Office — John  Jones  is  not  Encouraged — Post-offices  as  Plentiful  as 
Blackberries — Receiving  Office  seekers — Dismissing  John — Over-crowded  Past- 
ares — John's  Own  Private  Opinion — Peculiar  Impartiality  of  the  Man  in 
Office— What  the  Successful  Man  Said— A  Certain  Kind  of  Man,  and  Where 
He  can  be  Found, 382 

CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

THE  DEAD-LETTER  OFFICE— ITS  MARVELS  AND  MYSTERIES. 
The  Post-Office— The  Postal  Service  In  Early  Times— The  First  Postmaster  Gen- 
eral—The Present  Chief— A  Cabinet  Minister— The  Subordinate  Officers— 
Their  Positions  and  Duties— The  Ocean  Mail  Postal  Service— The  Contract 
Office— The  Finance  Office— The  Inspection  Office— Complaints  and  Misdo- 
ings— One  Hundred  and  Twenty  Years  Ago— Franklin  Performs  Wonderful 
Works— His  Ideas  of  Speed— Between  Boston  and  Philadelphia  in  Six  Weeks 
—Dismissed  from  Office— A  New  Post-Office  System— The  Inspector  of  Dead 
Letters — Only  Seventy-five  Offices  in  the  States — Only  One  Clerk — Govern- 
ment Stages — The  Office  at  Washington — Franklin's  Old  Ledger — The  Pres- 
ent Number  of  Post-Offices— The  Dead  Letter  Office— The  Ladies  Too  Much 
Squeezed — Opening  the  Dead  Letters — Why  Certain  Persons  are  Trusted — 
Three  Thousand  Thoughtless  People— Valuable  Letters — Ensuring  Correct- 
ness—The Property  Branch — The  Touching  Story  of  the  Photographs — The 
Return  Branch — What  the  Postmaster  Says, 388 

CHAPTER  XXXVin. 

THE    DEPARTMENT    OF    THE    INTERIOR — UNCLE    SAM'S    DOMESTIC    ARRANGE- 
MENTS. 

Inadequate  Accommodation  in  Heaven — Valuable  Documents — In  Jeopardy — 
Talk  of  Moving  the  Capital— Concerning  Certain  Idiots— A  Day  in  the  Pat- 
ent Office — The  Inventive  Genius  of  the  Country — Division  of  Indian  Affairs 
— Lamls  and  Railroads — Pensions  and  Patents — The  Superintendent  of  the 
Building — The  Secretary  of  the  Interior  and  his  Subordinates — Pensions  and 
Their  Recipients — Indian  Affairs — How  the  Savages  are  Treated — Over  Twen 
ty-One  Million  of  Dollars  Credited  to  their  Little  Account — The  Census  Bureau 
—A  Rather  Big  Work— The  Bureau  of  Patents— What  is  a  Patent  ?— A  Few 
Dollars  Over — The  Use  Made  of  a  Certain  Brick  Building — Cutting  Down 
the  Ladies'  Salaries— Making  Places  for  Useful  Voters— A  Sweet  Prayer  for 
Delano's  Welfare, 407 


CONTENTS.  XVli 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

THE  PENSION  BUREAU — HOW  GOVERNMENT  PAYS  ITS  SERVANTS.  PJLGB. 
Sneering  at  Red  Tape — The  Division  of  Labor — Scrutinizing  Petitions — A 
Heavy  Paper  Jacket — Invalids,  Widows,  and  Minors — The  Examiner  of  Pen- 
sions— How  Claims  are  Entertained  and  Tested — What  is  Recorded  in  the 
Thirty  Enormous  Volumes — How  Many  Genuine  Cases  are  Refused — One  of 
the  Inconveniences  of  Ignorance — The  Claim  Agent  Gobbles  up  the  Lion's 
Share — An  Extensive  Correspondence — How  Claims  are  Mystified,  and  Money 
is  Wasted — Seventy -five  Thousand  Claims  Pending — The  Reward  of  Fourteen 
Days'  Service— The  Sum  Total  of  What  the  Government  has  Paid  in  Pensions 
— The  Largest  and  the  Smallest  Pension  Office — The  Miscellaneous  Branch — 
Investigating  Frauds — A  Poor  "  Dependent "  Woman  with  Forty  Thousand 
Dollars — How  "  Honest  and  Respectable  "  People  Defraud  the  Government — 
The  Medical  Division— Examining  Invalids— The  Restoration-Desk— The 
Appeal-Desk— The  Final-Desk— The  Work  that  Has  Been  Done— One  Hun- 
dred and  Fifty  Thousand  People  Grumbling — The  Wrath  of  a  Pugnacious 
Captain, 418 

CHAPTER  XL. 

TREASURES   AND   CURIOSITIES   OF    THE    PATENT     OFFICE — THE    MODEL    ROOM 
— ITS   RELICS   AND   INVENTIONS. 

The  Patent  Office  Building— The  Model  Room—"  The  Exhibition  of  the  Nation" 
— A  Room  Two  Hundred  and  Seventy  Feet  in  Length — The  Models — Wonders 
and  Treasures  of  the  Room — Benjamin  Franklin's  Press — Model  Fire-Escapes 
— Wonderful  Fire-Extinguishers — The  Efforts  of  Genius — Sheep-Stalls,  Rat- 
Traps,  and  Gutta  Percha — An  Ancient  Mariner's  Compass — Captain  Cook's 
Razor — The  Atlantic  Cable — The  Signatures  of  Emperors — An  Extraordinary 
Turkish  Treaty— Treasures  of  the  Orient— Rare  Medals— The  Reward  of 
Major  Andre's  Captors— The  Washington  Relics— His  Old  Tent— His  Blankets 
and  Bed-Curtains — His  Chairs  and  Looking-Glass — His  Primitive  Mess-Chest 
and  old  Tin  Plates — Model  of  an  Extraordinary  Boat — Abraham  Lincoln  as 
an  Inventor— The  Hat  Worn  on  the  Fatal  Night— The  Gift  of  the  Tycoon — 
The  Efforts  of  Genius— A  Machine  to  Force  Hens  to  Lay  Eggs— A  Hook  for 
Fishing  Worms  out  of  the  Human  Stomach,  456 

CHAPTER  XLI. 

THE   BUREAU  OF  PATENTS — CRAZY   INVENTORS   AND  WONDERFUL   INVENTIONS. 

Patent-Rights  in  Steamboats — The  Corps  of  Examiners — Twenty  Thousand 
Applications  per  annum — Fourteen  Thousand  Patents  Granted  in  One  Year — 
Wonderful  Expansion  of  Inventive  Genius — "  The  Universal  Yankee  " — Sec- 
ond-hand Inventions — Where  the  Inventions  Come  From — Taking  Out  a 
Patent  for  the  Lord's  Prayer — A  Patent  for  a  Cow's  Tail — A  Lady's  Patent — 
Hesitating  to  Accept  a  Million  Dollars — How  Patentees  are  Protected — The 
American  System— Exploits  of  General  Leggett— His  Efficiency  in  Office— 
2 


XV1U  CONTENTS. 

FA«a 

The  Inventor  Always  a  Dreamer — Perpetual  Motion — The  Invention  of  a  D. 
D. — Silencing  the  Doctor — A  New  Process  of  Embalming — A  Dead  Body 
Sent  to  the  Office — Utilizing  Niagara — An  Englishman's  Invention — Inventors 
in  Paris — How  to  Kill  Lions  and  Tigers  in  the  United  States  with  Catmint— 
A  Fearful  Bomb  Shell — Eccentric  Letters — Amusing  Specimens  of  Corres- 
pondence,   ,  44fl 

CHAPTER  XLH. 

THE   WAR  DEPARTMENT. 

The  Secretary-of-War— His  Duties— The  Department  of  the  Navy— The  Cus- 
tody of  the  Flags— Patriotic  Trophies— The  War  of  the  Kebellion— Captured 
Flags — An  Ugly  Flag  and  a  Strange  Motto — The  Stars  and  Stripes — The 
Black  Flag — No  Quarter — The  Washington  Aqueduct — Topographical  Engin- 
eers— The  Ordnance  Bureau — The  War  Department  Building — During  the 
War — Lincoln's  Solitary  Walk — Secretary  Stanton — The  Exigencies  of  War — 
The  Medical  History  of  the  War— Dr.  Hammond— Dr.  J.  H.  Baxter -The 
Inspection  of  over  Half  a  Million  Persons — Who  is  Unfit  for  Military  Ser- 
vice  Curious  Calculations  Respecting  Height,  Health,  and  Color,  .  .  460 

CHAPTER  XLIII. 

THE  ARMY  MEDICAL  MUSEUM — ITS  CURIOSITIES  AND  WONDERS. 
Ford's  Theatre— Its  Interesting  Memories— The  Last  Festivities— Assassination 
ot  President  Lincoln — Two  Years  Later — Effects  of  "  War,  Disease,  and 
Human  Skill  " — Collection  of  Pathological  Specimens — The  Army  Medical 
Museum  opened — Purchase  of  Ford's  Theatre — Ghastly  Specimens — A  Book 
Four  Centuries  Old— Rare  Old  Volumes— The  Most  Interesting  of  the  National 
Institutions — Various  Opinions — Effects  on  Visitors — An  Extraordinary  With- 
ered Arm— A  Dried  Sioux  Baby!— Its  Poor  Little  Nose— A  Well-dressed 
Child— Its  Buttons  and  Beads— Casts  of  Soldier-Martyrs—Making  a  New 
Nose — Vassear's  Mounted  Craniums — Model  Skeletons — A  Giant,  Seven  Feet 
High— Skeleton  of  a  Child— All  that  remains  of  Wilkes  Booth,  the  Assas- 
sin— Fractures  by  Shot  and  Shell — General  Sickles  Contributes  His  Quota — 
A  Case  of  Skulls — Arrow-head  Wounds — Nine  Savage  Sabre-Cuts — Seven 
Bullets  in  One  Head — Phenomenal  Skulls — A  Powerful  Nose — An  Attempted 
Suicide — A  Proverb  Corrected — Specimen  from  the  Paris  Catacombs — Typical 
Heads  of  the  Human  Race — Remarkable  Indian  Relics — "  Flatheads  " — The 
Work  of  Indian  Arrows — An  Extraordinary  Story — A  "  Pet  "  Curiosity — A 
Japanese  Manikin — Tattooed  Heads — Adventure  of  Captain  John  Smith — A 
"  Stingaree  " — The  Microscopical  Division — Preparing  Specimens,  .  .  47? 

CHAPTER  XLIV. 

J'  OLD  PROBABILITIES'  "  WORKSHOP — HOW  WEATHER  CALCULATIONS  ARE  si  AD;-: 
"  Old    Probabilities  "—An    Interesting    Subject— The    Weather   Bureau— The 
Experience  of  Fifty  Centuries — Foreseeing  the  Approach  of  Storms— The 
Fate  of  the  Metis— Quicker  than  the  Storm— The  First  Warning  by  Tele- 
graph—Exchanging Reports  with  Canada— The  "  Observing  Stations  "—Pro- 


CONTENTS.  XIX 

PAGB. 

tecting  the  Hirer  Commerce — The  Signal  Corps — The  Examinations — The 
Sergeant's  Duties— The  Signal-Stations — The  Work  of  the  Observers— Pre- 
paring Bulletins  at  Washington — Professor  Maury's  Account — Safeguards 
Against  Mistakes — Deducing  Probabilities — Despatching  Bulletins— Watching 
the  Storm— The  Storm  at  San  Francisco — Prophetic  Preparations— Perfect 
Arrangements — Training  the  Sergeants — General  Meyer's  Work — An  Extra- 
ordinary Mansion— The  "  Kites  and  Windmills  "—Inside  the  Mansion— The 
Apparatus — "  The  Unerring  Weather-Man  " — "  Old  Probabilities  "  Himself — 
How  Calculations  are  Made — "  Young  Probabilities  " — Interesting  Facts,  .  491 

CHAPTER  XLV. 

THE   NAVY    DEPARTMENT — THE     UNITED     STATES    OBSERVATORY — THE    STATE 
DEPARTMENT. 

The  Navy -Yards  and  Docks— Equipment  of  Vessels— Bureau  of  Ordnance  and 
Hydrography — The  Naval  Observatory — The  Bureau  of  Medicine — Interest- 
ing Statistics — The  Navy  Seventy  Years  Ago — Instructions  of  the  Great 
Napoleon — Keeping  Pace  with  England — Scene  from  the  Observatory — Peep- 
ing through  the  Telescope — The  Mountains  in  the  Moon — The  Largest  Tele- 
scope in  the  World— The  Chronometers  of  the  Government — The  Test  of 
Time— Chronometers  on  Trial— The  Wind  and  Current  Charts— The  Good 
Deeds  of  Lieutenant  Maury— "  The  Habits  of  the  Whale  " — The  Equatorial — 
A  Self-acting  Telescope — The  Transit  Instrument — The  Great  Astronomical 
Clock— Telling  Time  by  Telegraph— Hearing  the  Clock  Tick  Miles  Away— 
The  Transit  of  Venus— Great  Preparations— A  Trifle  of  Half-a-Million  of 
Miles— A  Little  Secret  Suggestion— Pardons  and  Passports,  .  .  .  .507 

CHAPTER  XL VI. 

INSIDE   THE   GOVERNMENT   PRINTING   OFFICE — THE   STORY   OP   A   "  PUB.  DOC." 
— WOMEN   WORKERS. 

The  Largest  Printing  Establishment  in  the  World— The  Celebrated  "Pub. 
Doc." — A  Personal  Experience — What  the  Nation's  Printing  Costs — A  Mel- 
ancholy Fact — Two  Sides  of  the  Question — Printing  a  Million  Money- 
Or  ItTs — The  Stereotype  Foundry — A  Few  Figures — The  Government  Print- 
ing Office — A  Model  Office — Aiding  Human  Labor — Working  by  Machinery — 
The  Ink-Room— The  Private  Offices— Mr.  Clapp's  Comfortable  Office — The 
Proof-Reading  Room— The  Workers  There— The  Compositor's  Room— The 
Women-Workers— Setting  Up  Her  Daily  Task— The  Tricks  and  Stratagems 
of  Correspondents — A  Private  Press  in  the  White  House — Acres  of  Paper — 
Specimens  of  Binding — Specimen  Copies —  Binding  the  Surgical  History  of 
the  War— The  Ladies  Require  a  Little  More  Air— Delicate  Gold-Leaf  Work — 
The  Folding-Room— An  Army  of  Maidens— The  Stitching-Room— The  Nee- 
dles of  Women— A  Busy  Girl  at  Work—"  Thirty  Cents  Apiece  "—Getting 
Used  to  It — The  Girl  Over  Yonder — The  Manual  Labor  System — Preparing 
"  Copy  "— "  Setting  Up  "— Makin<:-Up  "  Forms  "—Reading  "  Proof  "—The 
Press-Room — Going  to  Press — Folding,  Stitching,  and  Binding — Sent  Out  to 
"  The  Wide.  Wide  World."  .  520 


XX  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XLTVTL 

INSIDE  THE   SMITHSONIAN   INSTITUTION — ITS   TREASURES   OF   ART   AND 

SCIENCE — THE  LARGEST  COLLECTION  IN  THE  WORLD. 
Strange  Story  of  James  Smithson — A  Good  Use  of  Money — Seeking  the  Diffu- 
sion of  Knowledge— Catching  a  Tear  from  a  Lady's  Cheek— Analysis  of  the 
Same  Tear — A  Brief  Tract  on  Coffee-Making — James  Smithson's  Will — Praise- 
worthy Efforts  of  Robert  Dale  Owen— The  Bequest  Accepted— The  Plan  of 
the  Institution — Its  Intent  and  Object — The  Smithsonian  Reservation — The 
Smithsonian  Building — The  Museum — Treasures  of  Art  and  Science — The 
Results  of  Thirty  Government  Expeditions — The  Largest  Collection  in  the 
•World— Valuable  Mineral  Specimens— All  the  Vertebrated  Animals  of  North 
America — Classified  Curiosities— The  Smithsonian  Contributions — Its  Advan- 
tages and  Operations — Results — The  Agricultural  Bureau — Its  Plan  and 
Object — Collecting  Valuable  Agricultural  Facts — Helping  the  Purchaser  of  a 
Farm— The  Expenses  of  the  Bureau— The  Library— Nature-Printing— In  the 
Museum— The  Great  California  Plank— Vegetable  Specimens,  .  .  .533 

CHAPTER  XL VIII. 

OLD  HOMES  AND  HAUNTS  OP  WASHINGTON — MEMORIES  OF  OTHER  DAYS. 
The  Oldest  Home  in  Washington— The  Cottage  of  David  Burns— David  Burns's 
Daughter — The  Attractions  of  a  Cottage — The  Favored  Suitor — How  The 
Lady  was  Wooed  and  Won — Mother  and  Daughter — The  Offering  to  God — A 
Costly  Mausoleum — The  Assassination  Conspiracy — Persecuting  the  Inno- 
cent— The  Octagon  House — A  Comfortable  Income — The  Pleasures  of  Prop- 
erty— A  Haunted  House — Apple-Stealing — "  Departed  Joys  and  Stomach- 
Aches"— The  Tradedy  of  the  Decatur  House— A  Fatal  Duel— The  Stockton- 
Sickles  House— A  Spot  of  Frightful  Interest— The  Club-House—Assassination 
of  Mr.  Seward — Scenes  of  Festivity — The  House  of  Charles  Sumner — Corco- 
ran Castle— The  Finest  Picture  Gallery  in  America— Powers'  Greek  Slave— 
"Maggie  Beck" — During  the  War — The  Romantic  Story  of  Mr.  Barlow's 
Niece— Forgetting  His  Own  Name— Locking  Up  a  Wife— The  "  Ten  Build- 
ings"— Old  Capitol  Prison — The  Deeds  of  Ann  Royal  and  Sally  Brass— 
"  Paul  Pry  " — Blackmailing — Feared  By  All  Mankind — An  Unpleasant  Sort 
of  Woman — Arrested  on  Suspicion — Where  Wirz  was  Hung,  .  .  .  54» 

CHAPTER  XLIX. 

MOUNT  VERNON — MEMORIAL   DAY — ARLINGTON. 

The  Tomb  of  Washington— The  Pilgrims  who  Visit  it— Where  George  and 
Martha  Washington  Rest— The  Thought  of  Other  Graves— The  Defenders  of 
.  the  Republic— Eating  Boiled  Eggs— A  Butterfly  Visit— Patriarchal  Dogs- 
Remembering  a  Feast— The  Room  in  which  Washington  Died— The  Great 
Key  of  the  Bastile— The  Gift  of  Lafayette— Moralizing— Inside  the  Mansion- 
Uncle  Tom's  Bouquets— Beautiful  Scenery— Memorial  Day  at  Arlington— The 
Soldiers'  Orphans — The  Grave  of  Forty  Soldiers — The  Sacrifice  of  a  Widow's 
Son— The  Record  of  the  Brave— A  National  Prayer  for  the  Dead,  .  531 


CONTENTS.  XXI 

CHAPTER  L. 

THE  LIFE   AND   CAREER   OP  JAMES   A.    GARFIEUD, 
THE    MARTYRED    PRESIDENT. 

PAGB 

The  National  Republican  Convention  of  1880 — "Nomination  of  James  A.  Gnrfield 
as  President  Hayes's  successor — The  History  of  His  Life — His  Humble  Home 
— Dcatli  of  His  Father — Hardship  and  Privations  of  Pioneer  Life — Struggles 
of  His  Mother  to  Support  the  Family — Splitting  Fence  Rails  with  her  own 
Hands— The  Future  President's  Early  School  Days— Working  as  a  Carpenter 
— Chopping  Wood  for  a  Living — Leaving  Home — Life  as  a  Canal  Boat  Boy 
— Narrow  Escapes — Beginning  Ilis  Education  in  Earnest— School  Life  at 
Chester— How  He  Paid  His  Own  Way— First  Meeting  with  Ilis  Future  Wife 
—Early  Religious  Experience— Enters  Williams  College— Professor  and  Pres- 
ident— Ilis  First  Appearance  in  Politics — His  Brilliant  Military  Record — His 
Services  at  Shiloh,  Corinth,  and  Chickamauga — His  Congressional  Career — 
Republican  Leader  of  the  House  of  Representatives — He  is  Elected  to  the 
United  States  Senate — Ilis  Appearance  as  the  Leader  of  the  Sherman  Forces 
at  the  Chicago  Convention — He  is  Himself  Nominated  amid  the  Wildest  En- 
thusiasm— An  Exciting  Campaign — His  Triumphant  Election.  .  .  .  588 

CHAPTER  LI. 

THE   HISTORY   OF   THE   ASSASSINATION   AND   DEATH   OF  PRESIDENT  JAMES 
A.   OARFIELD THE   GREAT   TRAGEDY   OF   THE  AGE. 

Inauguration  of  President  Garfield — Kissing  His  Venerable  Mother — Chief  Mag- 
istrate of  Fifty  Million  People — Illness  of  Mrs.  President  Garfield— Tender 
Solicitude  of  the  President  for  the  Welfare  of  His  Wife — She  Goes  to  Long 
Branch— The  President's  Plans  to  Meet  Her— His  Arrival  at  the  Depot  of 
the  Baltimore  and  Potomac  R.  R.  at  Washington — His  Buoyant  Spirits — 
Joyous  Anticipation  of  Meeting  His  Wife — The  Assassin  Lying  in  Wait — The 
Fatal  Shot — Tremendous  Excitement — The  Wounded  President — His  As- 
sassin, Charles  J.  Guiteau — Who  He  is — His  Infamous  Appearance  and  Char- 
acter—His Cool  Deliberation— His  Capture  and  Imprisonment— A  Thrill  of 
Horror  Throughout  the  Country — IJemoval  of  the  President  to  the  White 
House — A  nival  of  Mrs.  Garfield — Her  Courage  and  Devotion — The  Fight  for 
Life — Anxious  Days — Removal  of  the  Wounded  President  to  Long  Branch 
— A  Remarkable  Ride  — Great  Anxiety  Throughout  the  Country— Fighting 
Death— Slowly  Sinking — After  Eighty  Days  of  Unparalleled  Suffering  tho 
President  Breathes  His  Last — Grief  and  Gloom  throughout  the  Land — The 
Whole  Civilized  World  in  Tears— Unprecedented  Funeral  and  Memorial  Hon- 
ors— His  Burial  at  Cleveland — Attendance  of  Two  Hundred  and  Fifty  Thou- 
sand People— His  Life  and  Character  Reviewed 60» 


Ten  Tears  in  Washington. 

\  CHAPTER  I. 

F&OM  THE  VERY  BEGINNING. 

/  • 

The  Young  Surveyor's  Dream — Huraboldt's  View  of  Washington — A  Vision 
of  the  Future  Capital — The  United  States  Government  on  Wheels — 
Ambitious  Offers — The  Rival  Rivers — Potomac  Wins — Battles  in  Con- 
gress— Patriotic  Offers  of  Territory — Temporary  Lodgings  for  Eleven 
Years — Old-Fashioned  Simplicity — He  Couldn't  Afford  Furniture — A 
Great  Man's  Modesty — Conflicting  Claims — Smith  Backs  Baltimore — A 
Convincing  Fact— The  Dreadful  Quakers — A  Condescending  Party — 
A  Slight  Amendment— An  Old  Bill  Brought  to  Light  Again— The 
Indian  Place  with  the  Long  Name — Secession  Threatened — The  Future 
Strangely  Foreshadowed — A  Dinner  of  Some  Consequence — How  it  was 
Done — Really  a  Stranger — A  Nice  Proposal — Sweetening  the  Pill — A 
"  Revulsion  of  Stomach  " — Fixed  on  the  Banks  of  the  Potomac. 

MORE  than  a  century  ago  a  young  surveyor,  Captain 
of  the  Virginia  troops,  camped  with  Braddock's 
forces  upon  the  hill  now  occupied  by  the  Washington 
Observatory,  looked  down  as  Moses  looked  from  Nebo 
upon  the  promised  land,  until  he  saw  growing  before  his 
prophetic  sight  the  city  of  the  future,  the  Capital  of  a 
vast  and  free  people  then  unborn.  This  youth  was  George 
Washington.  The  land  upon  which  he  gazed  was  the  un- 
dreamed of  site  of  the  undreamed  of  city  of  the  Republic, 
then  to  be.  This  youth,  ordained  of  God  to  be  the  Father 
of  the  Republic,  was  the  prophet  of  its  Capital.  He  fore- 
saw it,  he  chose  it,  he  served  it,  he  loved  it ;  but  as  a 
Capital  he  never  entered  it 


22  TEN   TEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Gazing  from  the  green  promontory  of  Camp  Hill, 
what  was  the  sight  of  land  and  water  upon  which  the 
youthful  surveyor  looked  down  ?  It  was  fair  to  see,  so 
fair  that  Humboldt  declared  after  traveling  around  the 
earth,  that  for  the  site  of  a  city  the  entire  globe  does 
not  hold  its  equal.  On  his  left  rose  the  wooded  hights 
of  Georgetown.  On  his  right,  the  hills  of  Virginia 
stretched  outward  toward  the  ocean.  From  the  luxu- 
rious meadows  which  zoned  these  hills,  the  Potomac 
River — named  by  the  Indians  Cohonguroton,  River  of 
Swans — from  its  source  in  the  Alleghany  Mountains, 
flowing  from  north-west  to  south-west,  here  expanded 
more  than  the  width  of  a  mile,  and  then  in  concentrated 
majesty  rolled  on  to  meet  Chesapeake  Bay,  the  river 
James,  and  the  ocean.  South  and  east,  flowing  to  meet 
it,  came  the  beautiful  Anacostin,  now  called  Eastern 
Branch,  and  on  the  west,  winding  through  its  pictur- 
esque bluffs,  ran  the  lovely  Rock  Creek,  pouring  its 
bright  waters  into  the  Potomac,  under  the  Hights  of 
Georgetown.  At  the  confluence  of  these  two  rivers, 
girdled  by  this  bright  stream,  and  encompassed  by  hills, 
the  young  surveyor  looked  across  a  broad  amphitheatre 
of  rolling  plain,  still  covered  with  native  oaks  and  un- 
dergrowth. It  was  not  these  he  saw.  His  prescient 
sight  forecast  the  future.  He  saw  the  two  majestic 
rivers  bearing  upon  their  waters  ships  bringing  to  these 
green  shores  the  commerce  of  many  nations.  He  saw 
the  gently  climbing  hills  crowned  with  villas,  and  in  the 
stead  of  oaks  and  undergrowth,  broad  streets,  a  populous 
city,  magnificent  buildings,  outrivaling  the  temples  of 
antiquity — the  Federal  City,  the  Capital  of  the  vast  Re- 
public yet  to  be!  The  dreary  camp,  the  weary  march, 


A    GOVERNMENT    ON    WHEELS.  23 

privation,  cold,  hunger,  bloodshed,  revolution,  patient 
victory  at  last,  all  these  were  to  be  endured,  outlived, 
before  the  beautiful  Capital  of  his  future  was  reached. 
Did  the  youth  foresee  these,  also  ?  Many  toiling,  strug- 
gling, suffering  years  bridged  the  dream  of  the  young 
surveyor  and  the  first  faint  dawn  of  its  fulfillment. 

After  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  before  the  adop- 
tion of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  its  govern- 
ment moved  slowly  and  painfully  about  on  wheels.  As 
the  exigencies  of  war  demanded,  Congress  met  at  Phila- 
delphia, Baltimore,  Lancaster,  York,  Princeton,  Annapolis, 
Trenton,  and  New  York.  During  these  troubled  years 
it  was  the  ambition  of  every  infant  State  to  claim  the 
seat  of  government.  For  this  purpose  New  York  offered 
Kingston ;  Rhode  Island,  Newport ;  Maryland,  Anapolis ; 
Virginia,  Williamsburg. 

June  21,  1783,  Congress  was  insulted  at  Philadelphia 
by  a  band  of  mutineers,  which  the  State  authorities  could 
not  subdue.  The  body  adjourned  to  Princeton ;  and  the 
troubles  and  trials  of  its  itinerancy  caused  the  subject  of 
a  permanent  national  seat  of  government  to  be  taken  up 
and  discussed  with  great  vehemence  from  that  time  till 
the  formation  of  the  Constitution.  The  resolutions  of- 
fered, and  the  votes  taken  in  these  debates,  indicate  that 
the  favored  site  for  the  future  Capital  lay  somewhere  be- 
tween the  banks  of  the  Delaware  and  the  Potomac — "near 
Georgetown,"  says  the  most  oft-repeated  sentence.  Octo- 
ber 30,  1784,  the  subject  was  discussed  by  Congress,  at 
Trenton.  A  long  debate  resulted  in  the  appointment  of 
three  commissioners,  with  full  power  to  lay  out  a  district 
not  exceeding  three,  nor  less  than  two  miles  square,  on 
the  banks  of  either  side  of  the  Delaware,  for  a  Federal 


24  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

town,  with  power  to  buy  soil  and  to  enter  into  contracts 
for  the  building  of  a  Federal  House,  President's  house, 
house  for  Secretaries,  etc. 

Notwithstanding  the  adoption  of  this  resolution,  these 
Commissioners  never  entered  upon  their  duties.  Prob- 
ably the  lack  of  necessary  appropriations  did  not  hinder 
them  more  than  the  incessant  attempts  made  to  repeal 
the  act  appointing  the  Commissioners,  and  to  substitute 
the  Potomac  for  the  Delaware,  as  the  site  of  the  antici- 
pated Capital.  Although  the  name  of  President  Wash- 
ington does  not  appear  in  these  controversies,  even  then 
the  dream  of  the  young  surveyor  was  taking  on  in  the 
President's  mind  the  tangible  shape  of  reality.  First, 
after  the  war  for  human  freedom  and  the  declaration  of 
national  independence,  was  the  desire  in  the  heart  of 
George  Washington  that  the  Capital  of  the  new  Nation 
whose  armies  he  had  led  to  triumph,  should  rise  above 
the  soil  of  his  native  Dominion,  upon  the  banks  of  the 
great  river  where  he  had  foreseen  it  in  his  early  dream. 
That  he  used  undue  influence  with  the  successive  Con- 
gresses which  debated  and  voted  on  many  sites,  not  the 
slightest  evidence  remains,  and  the  nobility  of  his  char- 
acter forbids  the  supposition.  But  the  final  decision  at- 
tests to  the  prevailing  potency  of  his  preferences  and 
wishes,  and  the  immense  pile  of  correspondence  which 
he  has  left  behind  on  the  subject,  proves  that  next  to  the 
establishment  of  its  independence,  was  the  Capital  of  the 
Republic  dear  to  the  heart  of  George  Washington.  May 
10, 1787,  Massachusetts,  New  York,  Virginia  and  Georgia 
voted  for,  and  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware  and 
Maryland  against  the  proposition  of  Mr.  Lee  of  Virginia, 
that  the  Board  of  Treasury  should  take  measures  for 


HOW   THE   BATTLE   WAS    FOUGHT   IN   CONGRESS.       25 

erecting  the  necessary  public  buildings  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  Congress,  at  Georgetown,  on  the  Potomac  River, 
as  soon  as  the  soil  and  jurisdiction  of  said  town  could  be 
obtained. 

Many  and  futile  were  the  battles  fought  by  the  old 
Congress,  for  the  site  of  the  future  Capital.  These  bat- 
tles doubtless  had  much  to  do  with  Section  8,  Article  1, 
of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which  declares 
that  Congress  shall  have  power  to  exercise  exclusive  leg- 
islation in  all  cases  whatsoever,  over  such  district  (not  ex- 
ceeding ten  miles  square,)  as  may,  by  cession  of  particular 
States  and  the  acceptance  of  Congress,  become  the  seat 
of  government  of  the  United  States.  This  article  was 
assented  to  by  the  convention  which  framed  the  Consti- 
tution, without  debate.  The  adoption  of  the  Constitution 
was  followed  spontaneously  by  most  munificent  acts  on 
the  part  of  several  States.  New  York  appropriated  its 
public  buildings  to  the  use  of  the  new  government,  and 
Congress  met  in  that  city  April  6,  1789.  On  May  15, 
following,  Mr.  White  from  Virginia,  presented  to  the 
House  of  Representatives  a  resolve  of  the  Legislature  of 
that  State,  offering  to  the  Federal  government  ten  miles 
square  of  its  territory,  in  any  part  of  that  State,  which 
Congress  might  choose  as  the  seat  of  the  Federal  gov- 
ernment. The  day  following,  Mr.  Seney  presented  a 
similar  act  from  the  State  of  Maryland.  Memorials  and 
petitions  followed  in  quick  succession  from  Pennsylvania, 
New  Jersey  and  Maryland.  The  resolution  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Legislature  begged  for  the  co-operation  of  Mary- 
land, offering  to  advance  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  thousand  dollars  to  the  use  of  the  general  gov- 
ernment toward  erecting  public  buildings,  if  the  Assem- 


26  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

bly  of  Maryland  would  advance  two-fifths  of  a  like  sum. 
Whereupon  the  Assembly  of  Virginia  immediately  voted 
to  cede  the  necessary  soil,  and  to  provide  seventy-two 
thousand  dollars  toward  the  erection  of  public  buildings. 
"New  York  and  Pennsylvania  gratuitously  furnished  ele- 
gant and  convenient  accommodations  for  the  government" 
during  the  eleven  years  which  Congress  passed  in  their 
midst,  and  offered  to  continue  to  do  the  same.  The  Leg- 
islature of  Pennsylvania  went  further  in  lavish  gener- 
osity, and  voted  a  sum  of  money  to  build  a  house  for  the 
President.  The  house  which  it  built  was  lately  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania.  The  present  White  House  is 
considered  much  too  old-fashioned  and  shabby  to  be  the 
suitable  abode  of  the  President  of  the  United  States.  A 
love  of  ornate  display  has  taken  the  place  of  early  Re- 
publican simplicity.  When  George  Washington  saw  the 
dimensions  of  the  house  which  the  Pennsylvanians  were 
building  for  the  President's  Mansion,  he  informed  them 
at  once  that  he  would  never  occupy  it,  much  less  incur 
the  expense  of  buying  suitable  furniture  for  it.  In  those 
Spartan  days  it  never  entered  into  the  head  of  the  State 
to  buy  furniture  for  the  "Executive  Mansion."  Thus  the 
Chief  Citizen,  instead  of  going  into  a  palace  like  a  sa- 
trap, rented  and  furnished  a  modest  house  belonging  to 
Mr.  Robert  Morris,  in  Market  street.  Meanwhile  the 
great  battle  for  the  permanent  seat  of  government  went 
on  unceasingly  among  the  representatives  of  conflicting 
States.  No  modern  debate,  in  length  and  bitterness,  has 
equalled  this  of  the  first  Congress  under  the  Constitution. 
Nearly  all  agreed  that  New  York  was  not  sufficiently  cen- 
tral. There  was  an  intense  conflict  concerning  the  rela- 
tive merits  of  Philadelphia  and  Germantown ;  Havre  de 


VIRGINIA  INJURED.  27 

Grace  and  a  place  called  Wright's  Ferry,  on  the  Susque- 
hanna ;  Baltimore  on  the  Patapsco,  and  Connogocheague 
on  the  Potomac.  Mr.  Smith  proclaimed  Baltimore,  and 
the  fact  that  its  citizens  had  subscribed  forty  thousand 
dollars  for  public  buildings.  The  South  Carolinians  cried 
out  against  Philadelphia  because  of  its  majority  of  Qua- 
kers who,  they  said,  were  eternally  dogging  the  Southern 
members  with  their  schemes  of  emancipation.  Many 
others  ridiculed  the  project  of  building  palaces  in  the 
woods.  Mr.  Gerry  of  Massachusetts  declared  that  it  was 
the  hight  of  unreasonableness  to  establish  the  seat  of 
government  so  far  south  that  it  would  place  nine  States 
out  of  the  thirteen  so  far  north  of  the  National  Capital ; 
while  Mr.  Page  protested  that  New  York  was  superior  to 
any  place  that  he  knew  for  the  orderly  and  decent  be- 
havior of  its  inhabitants,  an  assertion,  sad  to  say,  no 
longer  applicable  to  the  city  of  New  York. 

September  5,  1789,  a  resolution  passed  the  House  of 
Representatives  "  that  the  permanent  seat  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  ought  to  be  at  some  conven- 
ient place  on  the  banks  of  the  Susquehanna,  in  the  State 
of  Pennsylvania.  The  passage  of  this  bill  awoke  the 
deepest  ire  in  the  members  from  the  South.  Mr.  Madi- 
son declared  that  if  the  proceedings  of  that  day  could 
have  been  foreseen  by  Virginia,  that  State  would  never 
have  condescended  to  become  a  party  to  the  Constitution. 
Mr.  Scott  remarked  truly:  "The  future  tranquillity  and 
well  being  of  the  United  States  depended  as  much  on 
this  as  on  any  question  that  ever  had  or  ever  could  come 
before  Congress;"  while  Fisher  Ames  declared  that  every 
principle  of  pride  and  honor,  and  even  of  patriotism,  was 
engaged  in  the  debate. 


28  TEN   YEAES   IN   WASHINGTON. 

The  bill  passed  the  House  by  a  vote  of  thirty-one  to 
nineteen.  The  Senate  amended  it  by  striking  out  "  Sus- 
quehanna,"  and  inserting  a  clause  making  the  permanent 
seat  of  government  Germantown,  Pennsylvania,  provided 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania  should  give  security  to  pay 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  erection  of  public 
buildings.  The  House  agreed  to  these  amendments. 
Both  Houses  of  Congress  agreed  upon  Gemiantown  as 
the  Capital  of  the  Republic,  and  yet  the  final  passage  of 
the  bill  was  hindered  by  a  slight  amendment. 

June  28,  another  old  bill  was  dragged  forth  and 
amended  by  inserting  "on  the  River  Potomac,  at  some 
place  between  the  mouths  of  the  Eastern  Branch  and 
the  Connogocheague."  This  was  finally  passed,  July  16, 
1790,  entitled  "An  Act  establishing  the  temporary  and 
permanent  seat  of  the  government  of  the  United  States." 
The  word  temporary  applied  to  Philadelphia,  whose  dis- 
appointment in  not  becoming  the  final  Capital  was  to  be 
appeased  by  Congress  holding  their  sessions  there  till 
1800,  when,  as  a  member  expressed  it,  "they  were  to 
go  to  the  Indian  place  with  the  long  name,  on  the 
Potomac." 

Human  bitterness  and  dissension  were  even  then  rife 
in  both  Houses  of  Congress.  The  bond  which  bound 
the  new  Union  of  States  together  was  scarcely  welded, 
and  yet  secession  already  was  an  openly  uttered  threat. 
An  amendment  had  been  offered  to  the  funding  act,  pro- 
viding for  the  assumption  of  the  State  debts  to  the  amount 
of  twenty-one  millions,  which  was  rejected  by  the  House. 
The  North  favored  assumption  and  the  South  opposed  it. 
Just  then  reconciliation  and  amity  were  brought  about 
between  the  combatants  precisely  as  they  often  are  in 


DINNEK    TABLE    LEGISLATION.  29 

our  own  time,  over  a  well-laid  dinner  table,  and  a  bot- 
tle of  rare  old  wine.  Jefferson  was  then  Secretary  of 
State,  and  Alexander  Hamilton,  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury, Hamilton  thought  that  the  North  would  yield  and 
consent  to  the  establishment  of  the  Capital  on  the  Poto- 
mac, if  the  South  would  agree  to  the  amendment  to  as- 
sume the  State  debts.  Jefferson  and  Hamilton  met  acci- 
dentally in  the  street,  and  the  result  of  their  half  an 
hour's  walk  "backward  and  forward  before  the  President's 
door"  was  the  next  day's  dinner  party,  and  the  final, 
irrevocable  fixing  of  the  National  Capital  on  the  banks 
of  the  Potomac.  How  it  was  done,  as  an  illustration  of 
early  legislation,  which  has  its  perfect  parallel  in  the  leg- 
islation of  the  present  day,  can  best  be  told  in  Jefferson's 
own  words,  quoted  from  one  of  his  letters.  He  says: 
"  Hamilton  was  in  despair.  As  I  was  going  to  the  Pres- 
ident's one  day  I  met  him  in  the  street.  He  walked  me 
backward  and  forward  before  the  President's  door  for 
half  an  hour.  He  painted  pathetically  the  temper  into 
which  the  legislature  had  been  wrought ;  the  disgust  of 
those  who  were  called  the  creditor  States ;  the  danger  of 
the  secession  of  their  members,  and  the  separation  of  the 
States.  He  observed  that  the  members  of  the  adminis- 
tration ought  to  act  in  concert  ....  that  the  President 
was  the  centre  on  which  all  administrative  questions 
finally  rested;  that  all  of  us  should  rally  around  him 
and  support  by  joint  efforts  measures  approved  by  him, 
....  that  an  appeal  from  me  to  the  judgment  and  dis- 
cretion of  some  of  my  friends  might  effect  a  change  in 
the  vote,  and  the  machine  of  government  now  suspended, 
might  be  again  set  in  motion.  I  told  him  that  I  was 
really  a  stranger  to  the  whole  subject,  not  having  yet 


30  TEN   YEAKS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

informed  myself  of  the  system  of  finance  adopted  .... 
that  if  its  rejection  endangered  a  dissolution  of  our  Un- 
ion at  this  incipient  stage,  I  should  deem  that  the  most 
unfortunate  of  all  consequences,  to  avert  which  all  par- 
tial and  temporary  evils  should  be  yielded. 

"  I  proposed  to  him,  however,  to  dine  with  me  the  next 
day,  and  I  would  invite  another  friend  or  two,  bring  them 
into  conference  together  and  I  thought  it  impossible  that 
reasonable  men,  consulting  together  coolly,  could  fail  by 
some  mutual  sacrifices  of  opinion  to  form  a  compromise, 
which  was  to'  save  the  Union.  The  discussion  took  place. 
....  It  was  finally  agreed  to,  that  whatever  importance 
had  been  attached  to  the  rejection  of  this  proposition, 
the  preservation  of  the  Union  and  of  concord  among  the 
States  was  more  important,  and  that  therefore  it  would 
be  better  that  the  vote  of  rejection  should  be  rescinded 
to  effect  which  some  members  should  change  their  votes. 
But  it  was  observed  that  this  pill  would  be  peculiarly 
bitter  to  Southern  States,  and  that  some  concomitant  meas- 
ure should  be  adopted  to  sweeten  it  a  little  to  them.  There 
had  before  been  a  proposition  to  fix  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment either  at  Philadelphia  or  Georgetown  on  the  Poto- 
mac, and  it  was  thought  that  by  giving  it  to  Philadelphia 
for  ten  years,  and  to  Georgetown  permanently  afterward, 
this  might,  as  an  anodyne,  calm  in  some  degree  the  fer- 
ment which  might  be  excited  by  the  other  measure  alone. 
So  two  of  the  Potomac  members,  [White  and  Lee,]  but 
White  with  a  revulsion  of  stomach  almost  convulsive, 
agreed  to  change  their  votes,  and  Hamilton  agreed  to 
carry  the  other  point  ....  and  so  the  assumption  was 
passed,"  and  the  permanent  Capital  fixed  on  the  banks 
of  the  Potomac. 


CHAPTER  II. 
CROSS  PURPOSES  AND  QUEER   SPECULATIONS. 

Born  of  Much  Bother — Long  Debates  and  Pamphlets — Undefined  Appre-. 
hensions — Debates  on  the  Coming  City — Old  World  Examples — Sir 
James  Expresses  an  Opinion — A  Dream  of  the  Distant  West — An  Old- 
time  Want — A  Curious  Statement  of  Fact — "  Going  West" — Where  is 
the  Centre  of  Population — An  Important  Proclamation — Original  Land 
Owners — Well-worn  Patents — Getting  on  with  Pugnacious  Planters — 
Obstinate  David  Burns — A  "  Widow's  Mite"  of  Some  Magnitude — 
How  the  Scotchman  was  Subjugated — "If  You  Hadn't  Married  the 
Widow  Custis" — A  Rather  "Forcible  Argument" — His  Excellency 
"  Chooses  " — The  First  Record  in  Washington — Old  Homes  and  Haunts 
— Purchase  of  Land — Extent  of  the  City. 

AS  we  have  seen,  the  Federal  City  was  the  object  of 
George  Washington's  devoted  love  long  before  its 
birth.  It  was  born  through  much  tribulation.  First 
came  the  long  debates  and  pamphlets  of  1790,  as  to 
whether  the  seat  of  the  American  government  should 
be  a  commercial  capital.  Madison  and  his  party  argued 
that  the  only  way  to  insure  the  power  of  exclusive  leg- 
islation to  Congress  as  accorded  by  the  Constitution,  was 
to  remove  the  Capital  as  far  from  commercial  interests  as 
possible.  They  declared  that  the  exercise  of  this  author- 
ity over  a  large  mixed  commercial  community  would  be 
impossible.  Conflicting  mercantile  interests  would  cause 
constant  political  disturbances,  and  when  party  feelings 
ran  high,  or  business  was  stagnant,  the  commercial  capi- 
tal would  swarm  with  an  irritable  mob  brim  full  of 
wrongs  and  grievances.  This  would  involve  the  neces- 
sity of  an  army  standing  in  perpetual  defense  of  the 


32     ,  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

capital.  London  and  Westminster  were  cited  as  exam- 
ples where  the  commercial  importance  of  a  single  city 
had  more  influence  on  the  measures  of  government  than 
the  whole  empire  outside.  Sir  James  Macintosh  was 
quoted,  wherein  he  said  "  that  a  great  metropolis  was  to 
be  considered  as  the  heart  of  a  political  body — as  the 
focus  of  its  powers  and  talents — as  the  direction  of  pub- 
lic opinion,  and,  therefore,  as  a  strong  bulwark  in  the 
cause  of  freedom,  or  as  a  powerful  engine  in  the  hands 
of  an  oppressor."  To  prevent  the  Capital  of  the  Re- 
public becoming  the  latter  the  Constitution  deprived  it 
of  the  elective  franchise.  The  majority  in  Congress  op- 
posed the  idea  of  a  great  commercial  city  as  the  future 
Capital  of  the  country.  Nevertheless  when  a  plan  for 
the  city  was  adopted  it  was  one  of  exceptional  magnifi- 
cence. It  was  a  dream  of  the  founders  of  the  Capital 
to  build  a  city  expressly  for  its  purpose  and  to  build  it 
for  centuries  to  come.  In  view  of  the  vast  territory  now 
comprehended  in  the  United  States  their  provision  for 
the  future  may  seem  meagre  and  limited.  But  when  we 
remember  that  there  were  then  but  thirteen  States,  that 
railroads  and  telegraphs  were  undreamed  of  as  human 
possibilities — that  nearly  all  the  empire  west  of  the  Po- 
tomac was  an  unpenetrated  wilderness,  we  may  wonder 
at  their  prescience  and  wisdom,  rather  than  smile  at  their 
lack  of  foresight.  Even  in  that  early  and  clouded  morn- 
ing there  were  statesmen  who  foresaw  the  later  glory  of 
the  West  fore-ordained  to  shine  on  far  off  generations. 
Says  Mr.  Madison  :  "  If  the  calculation  be  just  that  we 
double  in  fifty  years  we  shall  speedily  behold  an  aston- 
ishing mass  of  people  on  the  western  waters 

The  swarm  does  not  come  from  the  southern  but  from 


THE    COMING   WEST.  33 

the  northern  and  eastern  hives.  I  take  it  that  the  centre 
of  population  will  rapidly  advance  in  a  south-westerly  di- 
rection. It  must  then  travel  from  the  Susquehanna  if  it  is 
now  found  there — it  may  even  extend  beyond  the  Potomac  /" 

Said  Mr.  Vining  to  the  House,  "  I  confess  I  am  in  favor 
of  the  Potomac.  I  wish  the  seat  of  government  to  be 
fixed  there  because  I  think  the  interest,  the  honor,  and 
the  greatness  of  the  country  require  it.  From  thence,  it 
appears  to  me,  that  the  rays  of  government  will  naturally 
diverge  to  the  extremities  of  the  Union.  I  declare  that 
I  look  upon  the  western  territories  from  an  awful  and 
striking  point  of  view.  To  that  region  the  unpolished 
sons  of  the  earth  are  flowing  from  all  quarters — men  to 
whom  the  protection  of  the  laws  and  the  controlling 
force  of  the  government  are  equally  necessary." 

In  the  course  of  the  debate  Mr.  Calhoun  called  atten- 
tion to  the  fact  that  very  few  seats  of  government  in  the 
world  occupied  central  positions  in  their  respective  coun- 
tries. London  was  on  a  frontier,  Paris  far  from  central, 
the  capital  of  Russia  near  its  border.  Even  at  that  early 
date  comparatively  small  importance  was  attached  to  a 
geographical  centre  of  territory  as  indispensable  to  the 
location  of  its  capital.  The  only  possible  objection  to  a 
capital  near  the  sea-board  was  then  noted  by  Mr.  Madison 
who  said,  "  If  it  were  possible  to  promulgate  our  laws  by 
some  instantaneous  operation,  it  would  be  of  less  conse- 
quence where  the  government  might  be  placed,"  a  possi- 
bility now  fulfilled  by  the  daily  news  from  the  Capital 
which  speeds  to  the  remotest  corner  of  the  great  land  not 
only  with  the  swiftness  of  lightning  but  by  lightning  itself. 

Although  the  States  have  more  than  doubled  since  the 
days  of  this  first  discussion  on  where  the  Capital  of  the 


34  TEN   YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

United  States  should  be,  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  cen- 
tre of  population  has  not  traveled  westward  in  any  pro- 
portionate ratio.  According  to  a  table  calculated  by  Dr. 
Patterson  of  the  United  States  mint,  in  1840  the  centre 
of  population  was  then  in  Harrison  County,  Virginia,  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  miles  west  of  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington. At  that  time  the  average  progress  westward  since 
1790  had  been,  each  ten  years,  thirty-four  miles.  "This 
average  has  since  increased,  but  if  it  be  set  down  at  fifty 
miles,  it  will  require  a  century  to  carry  this  centre  five 
hundred  miles  west  of  Washington,  or  as  far  as  the  city 
of  Nashville,  Tennessee."  I  state  this  fact  for  the  benefit 
of  crazy  capital-movers  who  are  in  such  haste  to  set  the 
Capital  of  the  Nation  in  the  centre  of  the  Continent. 

I  have  given  but  a  few  of  the  questions  which  were 
discussed  in  the  great  debates  which  preceded  the  final  lo- 
cating of  the  Capital  on  the  banks  of  the  Potomac.  They 
are  a  portion  of  its  history,  and  deeply  interesting  in  theii 
bearing  on  the  present  and  future  of  the  Capital  city. 

The  long  strife  ended  in  the  amendatory  proclamation 
of  President  Washington,  done  at  Georgetown  the  30th 
day  of  March,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1791,  and  of  the 
independence  of  the  United  States  the  fifteenth,  which 
concluded  with  these  words:  "I  do  accordingly  direct 
the  Commissioners  named  under  the  authority  of  the 
said  first  mentioned  act  of  Congress  to  proceed  forthwith 
to  have  the  said  four  lines  run,  and  by  proper  metes  and 
bounds  defined  and  limited,  and  thereof  to  make  due  re- 
port under  their  hands  and  seals ;  and  the  territory  so  to 
be  located,  defined  and  limited  shall  be  the  whole  terri- 
tory accepted  by  the  said  act  of  Congress  as  the  district 
for  the  permanent  seat  of  the  government  of  the  United 


GENERAL  WASHINGTON  AND  DAVY  BURNS.      35 

States."  Maryland  had  ceded  of  her  land  ten  miles  square 
for  the  future  Capital.  Nothing  seemed  easier  than  for 
these  three  august  commissioners,  backed  by  the  power- 
ful Congress,  to  go  and  take  it.  But  it  was  not  so  easy 
to  be  done.  In  addition  to  the  State  of  Maryland  the 
land  belonged  to  land-holders,  each  one  of  whom  was  a 
lord  on  his  own  domain.  SoL_'3  of  these  held  land  pa- 
tents still  extant,  dating  back  to  1663,  and  1681.  These 
lords  of  the  manor  were  not  willing  to  be  disturbed  even 
for  the  sake  of  a  future  Capital,  and  displayed  all  the  iras- 
cibility and  tenacity  regarding  price  which  characterize 
land-holders  of  the  present  day.  If  we  may  judge  from 
results  and  the  voluminous  correspondence  concerning 
it,  left  by  George  Washington,  the  three  commissioners 
who  were  to  act  for  the  government  did  not  "get  on" 
very  well  with  the  pugnacious  planters  who  were  ready 
to  fight  for  their  acres — and  that  the  greater  part  of  the 
negotiating  for  the  new  city  finally  fell  to  the  lot  of  the 
great  Executive.  One  of  the  richest  and  most  famous 
of  these  land-owners  was  David  Burns.  He  owned  an 
immense  tract  of  land  south  of  where  the  president's 
house  now  stands,  extending  as  far  as  the  Patent  Office 
called  in  the  land  patent  of  1681  which  granted  it,  "the 
Widow's  Mite,  lyeing  on  the  east  side  of  the  Anacostin 
River,  on  the  north  side  of  a  branch  or  inlett  in  the  said 
river,  called  Tyber."  This  "  Widow's  Mite  "  contained  six 
hundred  acres  or  more,  and  David  Burns  was  in  no  wise 
willing  to  part  with  any  portion  of  it.  Although  it  laid 
within  the  territory  of  Columbia,  ceded  by  the  act  of 
Maryland  for  the  future  Capital,  no  less  a  personage  than 
the  President  of  the  United  States  could  move  one  whit 
David  Burns,  and  even  the  President  found  it  to  be  no 


36  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

easy  matter  to  bring  the  Scotchman  to  terms.  More 
than  once  in  his  letters  he  alludes  to  him  as  "  the  obsti- 
nate Mr.  Burns,"  and  it  is  told  that  upon  one  occasion 
when  the  President  was  dwelling  upon  the  advantage 
that  the  sale  of  his  lands  would  bring,  the  planter,  testy 
Davy,  exclaimed :  "  I  suppose  you  think  people  here 
are  going  to  take  every  grist  that  comes  from  you  as 
pure  grain,  but  what  would  you  have  been  if  you  hadn't 
married  the  widow  Custis." 

After  many  interviews  and  arguments  even  the  pa- 
tience of  Washington  finally  gave  out  and  he  said: 
"  Mr.  Burns,  I  have  been  authorized  to  select  the  loca- 
tion of  the  National  Capital.  I  have  selected  your  farm 
as  a  part  of  it,  and .  the  government  will  take  it  at  all 
events.  I  trust  you  will,  under  these  circumstances, 
enter  into  an  amicable  arrangement." 

Seeing  that  further  resistance  was  useless,  the  shrewd 
Scotchman  thought  that  by  a  final  graceful  surrender  he 
might  secure  more  favorable  terms,  thus,  when  the  Presi- 
dent once  more  asked :  "  On  what  terms  will  you  sur^ 
render  your  plantation?"  Said  humble  Davy:  "Any 
that  your  Excellency  may  choose  to  name."  The  deed 
conveying  the  land  of  David  Burns  to  the  commissioners 
in  trust,  is  the  first  on  record  in  the  city  of  Washington. 
This  sale  secured  to  David  Burns  and  his  descendants  an 
immense  fortune.  The  deed  provided  that  the  streets  of 
the  new  city  should  be  so  laid  out  as  not  to  interfere  with 
the  cottage  of  David  Burns.  That  cottage  still  stands  in 
famous  "Mansion  Square,"  and  the  reader  will  find  its 
story  further  on  in  the  chapter  devoted  to  the  Old  Homes 
and  Haunts  of  Washington.  The  other  original  owners  of 
the  soil  on  which  the  city  of  Washington  was  built  were 


THE   NEW   CAPITAL   LIMITS.  37 

Notley  Young,  who  owned  a  fine  old  brick  mansion  near 
the  present  steamboat  landing,  and  Daniel  Carroll,  whose 
spacious  abode  known  as  the  Duddington  House,  still 
stands  on  New  Jersey  Avenue,  a  little  south-east  of  the 
Capitol.  On  the  31st  of  May,  Washington  wrote  to  Jef- 
ferson from  Mount  Vernon,  announcing  the  conclusion  of 
his  negotiations  in  this  wise — the  owners  conveyed  all 
their  interest  to  the  United  States  on  consideration  that 
when  the  whole  should  be  surveyed  and  laid  off  as  a 
city  the  original  proprietors  should  retain  every  other 
lot.  The  remaining  lots  to  be  sold  by  the  government 
from  time  to  time  and  the  proceeds  to  be  applied  toward 
the  improvement  of  the  place.  The  land  comprised  within 
this  agreement  contains  over  seventy-one  hundred  acres. 
The  city  extends  from  north-west  to  south-east  about  four 
miles  and  a  half,  and  from  east  to  south-west  about  two 
miles  and  a  half.  Its  circumference  is  fourteen  miles, 
the  aggregate  length  of  the  streets  is  one  hundred  and 
ninety-nine  miles,  and  of  the  avenues  sixty-five  miles. 
The  avenues,  streets  and  open  spaces  contain  three  thou- 
sand six  hundred  and  four  acres,  and  the  public  reserva- 
tions exclusive  of  reservations  since  disposed  of  for  pri- 
vate purposes,  five  hundred  and  thirteen  acres.  The 
whole  area  of  the  squares  of  the  city  amounts  to  one 
hundred  and  thirty-one  million,  six  hundred  and  eighty- 
four  thousand,  one  hundred  and  seventy-six  square  feet, 
or  three  thousand  and  sixteen  acres.  Fifteen  hundred 
and  eight  acres  were  reserved  for  the  use  of  the  United 
States. 


CHAPTER   m. 
THE  WORK  BEGUN  IN   EARNEST. 

Washington's  Faith  in  the  Future — Mr.  Sparks  is  "  inclined  to  think  " — A 
Slight  Miscalculation — Theoretical  Spartans — Clinging  to  Old  World 
Glories — Jefferson  Acts  the  Critic — He  Communicates  Some  Ideas — 
Models  of  Antiquity — Babylon  Revived — Difficulty  in  Satisfying  a 
Frenchman's  Soul — The  Man  who  Planned  the  Capital — Who  was 
L'Enfant? — His  Troubles — His  Dismissal — His  Personal  Appearance, 
Old  Age,  Death  and  Burial-Place — His  Successor — The  French  Genius 
"  Proceeded  " — The  New  City  of  Washington — A  Magnificent  Plan — All 
About  the  City— The  Major  not  Appreciated— "Getting  on  Badly"— L'En- 
fant Worries  Washington — A  Record  which  Can  Never  Perish — An  Over- 
paid Quaker — Jefferson  Expresses  his  Sentiments — A  Sable  Franklin — > 
The  Negro  Engineer,  Benjamin  Bancker — A  Chance  for  a  Monument. 

r  I  THE  majority  of  Congress  were  opposed  to  a  commer- 
J-  cial  Capital,  yet  there  are  many  proofs  extant  that 
to  the  hour  of  his  death  George  Washington  cherished 
the  hope  that  the  new  city  of  his  love  would  be  not 
only  the  capital  of  the  nation,  but  a  great  commercial 
metropolis  of  the  world.  Mr.  Jared  Sparks,  the  histo- 
rian, in  a  private  letter  says:  "I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  Washington's  anticipations  were  more  sanguine  than 
events  have  justified.  He  early  entertained  very  large 
and  just  ideas  of  the  vast  resources  of  the  West,  and  of 
the  commercial  intercourse  that  must  spring  up  between 
that  region  and  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  he  was  wont  to 
regard  the  central  position  of  the  Potomac  as  affording 
the  most  direct  and  easy  channel  of  communication. 


WASHINGTON'S  FAITH  IN  ITS  FUTURE.  39 

Steamboats  and  railroads  have  since  changed  the  face  of 
the  world,  and  have  set  at  defiance  all  the  calculations 
founded  on  the  old  order  of  things ;  and  especially  have 
they  operated  on  the  destiny  of  the  West  and  our  entire 
system  of  internal  commerce,  in  a  manner  that  could  not 
possibly  have  been  foreseen  in  the  life-time  of  Washing- 
ton." Throughout  the  correspondence  of  Washington 
are  scattered  constant  allusions  to  the  future  magnifi- 
cence of  the  Federal  City,  the  name  by  which  he  loved 
to  call  the  city  of  his  heart,  allusions  which  show  that 
his  faith  in  its  great  destiny  never  faltered.  In  a  letter 
to  his  neighbor,  Mrs.  Fairfax,  then  in  England,  he  said: 
"  A  century  hence,  if  this  country  keeps  united,  it  will 
produce  a  city,  though  not  as  large  as  London,  yet  of  a 
magnitude  inferior  to  few  others  in  Europe."  At  that 
time,  after  a  growth  of  centuries,  London  contained  eight 
hundred  thousand  inhabitants.  Three-fourths  of  Wash- 
ington's predicted  century  have  expired,  and  the  city  of 
Washington  now  numbers  one  hundred  and  fifty '  thou- 
sand people. 

The  founders  of  the  Capital  were  all  very  republican 
m  theory,  and  all  very  aristocratic  in  practice.  In  speech 
they  proposed  to  build  a  sort  of  Spartan  capital,  fit  for  a 
Spartan  republic ;  in  fact,  they  proceeded  to  build  one 
modeled  after  the  most  magnificent  cities  of  Europe. 
European  by  descent  and  education,  many  of  them  allied 
to  the  oldest  and  proudest  families  of  the  Old  World, 
every  idea  of  culture,  of  art,  and  magnificence  had  come 
to  them  as  part  of  their  European  inheritance,  and  we 
see  its  result  in  every  thing  that  they  did  or  proposed  to 
do  for  the  new  Capital  which  they  so  zealously  began  to 
build  in  the  woods.  The  art-connoisseur  of  the  day  was 


40  TEN   YEAES   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Jefferson.  He  knew  Europe,  not  only  by  family  tradi- 
tion but  by  sight.  Next  to  Washington  he  took  the 
deepest  personal  interest  in  the  projected  Capital.  Of 
this  interest  we  find  continual  proof  in  his  letters,  also  of 
the  fact  that  his  taste  had  much  to  do  with  the  plan  and 
architecture  of  the  coming  city.  In  a  letter  to  Major 
L'Enfant,  the  first  engineer  of  the  Capital,  dated  Phila- 
delphia, April  10, 1791,  he  wrote :  "In  compliance  with 
your  request,  I  have  examined  my  papers  and  found  the 
plans  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  Carlsruhe,  Amsterdam, 
Strasburg,  Paris,  Orleans,  Bordeaux,  Lyons,  Montpelier, 
Marseilles,  Turin,  and  Milan,  which  I  send  in  a  roll  by 
post.  They  are  on  large  and  accurate  scales,  having 
been  procured  by  me  while  in  those  respective  cities  my- 
self. ....  Having  communicated  to  the  President  be- 
fore he  went  away,  such  general  ideas  on  the  subject  of  the 
town  as  occurred  to  me,  I  have  no  doubt  in  explaining 
himself  to  you  on  the  subject,  he  has  interwoven  with  his 
own  ideas  such  of  mine  as  he  approved When- 
ever it  is  proposed  to  present  plans  for  the  Capital,  I 
should  prefer  the  adoption  of  some  one  of  the  models  of 
antiquity,  which  have  had  the  approbation  of  thousands 
of  years ;  and  for  the  president's  house  I  should  prefer 
the  celebrated  fronts  of  modern  buildings,  which  have 
already  received  the  approbation  of  good  judges.  Such 
are  Galerie  du  Louise,  the  Gardes  Meubles,  and  two 
fronts  of  the  Hotel  de  Salm."  On  the  same  day  he 
writes  to  Washington:  "I  received  last  night  from 
Major  L'Enfant  a  request  to  furnish  any  plans  of  towns 
I  could  for  examination.  I  accordingly  send  him  by  this 
post,  plans  of  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  etc.,  which  I  pro- 
cured while  in  those  towns  respectively.  They  are  none 


THE  MAN  WHO  PLANNED  THE  CAPITAL.      41 

of  them,  however,  comparable  to  the  old  Babylon  revived 
in  Philadelphia  and  exemplified."  But  these  two  fathers 
of  their  country,  as  time  proved,  "  did  not  know  their 
man."  Had  they  done  so,  they  would  have  known  in 
advance  that  a  mercurial  Frenchman  would  never  at- 
tempt to  satisfy  his  soul  with  acute  angles  of  old  Baby- 
lon revived  through  the  arid  and  level  lengths  of  Phil- 
adelphia. 

The  man  who  planned  the  Capital  of  the  United  States 
not  for  the  present  but  for  all  time,  was  Peter  Charles 
L'Enfant,  born  in  France  in  1755.  He  was  a  lieutenant 
in  the  French  provincial  forces,  and  with  others  of  his 
countrymen  was  early  drawn  to  these  shores  by  the  mag- 
netism of  a  new  people,  and  the  promise  of  a  new  land. 
He  offered  his  services  to  the  revolutionary  army  as  an  en- 
gineer, in  1777,  and  was  appointed  captain  of  engineers 
February  18, 1778.  After  being  wounded  at  the  siege  of 
Savannah,  he  was  promoted  to  major  of  engineers,  and 
served  near  the  person  of  Washington.  Probably  at  that 
time  there  was  no  man  in  America  who  possessed  so  much 
genius  and  art-culture  in  the  same  directions  as  Major 
L'Enfant.  In  a  crude  land,  where  nearly  every  arti- 
san had  to  be  imported  from  foreign  shores,  the  chief 
designer  and  architect  surely  would  have  to  be.  Thus 
we  may  conclude  at  the  beginning,  it  seemed  a  lucky 
circumstance  to  find  an  engineer  for  the  new  city  on  the 
spot. 

The  first  public  communication  extant  concerning  the 
laying  out  of  the  city  of  Washington  is  from  the  pen  of 
General  Washington,  dated  March  11,  1791.  In  a  letter 
dated  April  30,  1791,  he  first  called  it  the  Federal  City. 
Four  months  later,  without  his  knowledge,  it  received 


42  TEN   YEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

its  present  name  in  a  letter  from  the  first  commissioners, 
Messrs.  Johnson,  Stuart,  and  Carroll,  which  bears  the 
date  of  Georgetown,  September  9,  1791,  to  Major  L'En- 
fant,  which  informs  that  gentleman  that  they  have 
agreed  that  the  federal  district  shall  be  called  The  Ter- 
ritory of  Columbia,  (its  present  title,)  and  the  federal 
city  the  city  of  Washington,  directing  him  to  entitle 
his  map  accordingly. 

In  March,  1791,  we  find  Jefferson  addressing  Major 
L'Enfant  in  these  words :  "  You  are  desired  to  proceed 
to  Georgetown,  where  you  will  find  Mr.  Ellicott  em- 
ployed in  making  a  survey  and  map  of  the  federal 
territory.  The  special  object  of  asking  your  aid  is  to 
have  the  drawings  of  the  particular  grounds  most  likely 
to  be  approved  for  the  site  of  the  federal  grounds  and 
buildings." 

The  French  genius  "  proceeded,"  and  behold  the  result, 
the  city  of  "magnificent  distances,"  and  from  the  begin- 
ning of  magnificent  intentions, — intentions  which  almost 
to  the  present  hour,  have  called  forth  only  ridicule — be- 
cause in  the  slow  mills  of  time  their  fulfillment  has  been 
so  long  delayed.  As  Thomas  Jefferson  wanted  the  chess- 
board squares  and  angles  of  Philadelphia,  L'Enfant  used 
them  for  the  base  of  the  new  city,  but  his  genius  avenged 
itself  for  this  outrage  on  its  taste  by  transversing  them 
with  sixteen  magnificent  avenues,  which  from  that  day 
to  this  have  proved  the  confusion  and  the  glory  of  the 
city.  French  instinct  diamonded  the  squares  of  Phila- 
delphia with  the  broad  corsos  of  Versailles,  as  Major 
L'Enfant's  map  said,  "to  preserve  through  the  whole  a 
reciprocity  of  sight  at  the  same  time." 

A  copy  of  the  Gazette  of  the  United  States,  published 


A  NATION'S  CAPITAL  ON  PAPEK.  43 

in  Philadelphia,  January  4,  1792,  gives  us  the  original 
magnificent  intentions  of  the  first  draughtsman  of  the 
Aew  city  of  Washington. 

The  following  description  is  annexed  to  the  plan  of  the  city 
of  Washington,  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  as  sent  to  Con- 
gress by  the  President  some  days  ago : 

PLAN  OF  THE  CITY  INTENDED  AS  THE  PERMANENT  SEAT  OF  THE  GOV- 
ERNMENT OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  PROJECTED  AGREEABLY  TO  THE 
DIRECTION  OF  THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  IN  PURSU- 
ANCE OF  AN  ACT  OF  CONGRESS,  PASSED  ON  THE  16TH  OF  JULY, 
1790,  "  ESTABLISHING  A  PERMANENT  SEAT  ON  THE  BANKS  OF  THE 
POTOMACK." 

BY  PETER  CHARLES   I/ENFANT. 

OBSERVATIONS   EXPLANATORY  OP  THE   PLAN. 

I.  The  positions  of  the  different  grand  edifices,  and  for  the 
several  grand  squares  or  areas  of  different  shapes  as  they  are 
laid  down,  were  first  determined  on   the   most   advantageous 
ground,  commanding  the  most   extensive  prospects,  and  the 
better  susceptible  of  such  improvements  as  the  various  interests 
of  the  several  objects  may  require. 

II.  Lines  or  avenues  of  direct  communication  have  been  de- 
vised to  connect  the  separate  and  most  distant  objects  with  the 
principals,  and  to  preserve  throughout  the  whole  a  reciprocity 
of  sight  at  the  same  time.     Attention  has  been  paid  to  the  pass- 
ing of  those  leading  avenues  over  the  most  favorable  ground  for 
prospect  and  convenience. 

III.  North  and  south  lines,  intersected  by  others  running 
due  east  and  west,  make  the  distribution  of  the  city  into  streets, 
squares,  &c.,  and  those  lines  have  been  so  combined  as  to  meet 
at  certain  points  with  those  diverging  avenues  so  as  to  form  on 
the  spaces  "  first  determined,"  the  different  squares  or  areas 
which  are  all  proportioned  in  magnitude  to  the  number  of  ave- 
nues leading  to  them. 


44  TEN   YEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 


MB.   ELLICOTT   "DOES   BUSINESS." 

Every  grand  transverse  avenue,  and  every  principal  divergent 
one,  such  as  the  communication  from  the  President's  house  to 
the  Congress  house,  &c.,  are  160  feet  in  breadth  and  thus 
divided : 

Ten  feet  for  pavement  on  each  side,  is 20  feet 

Thirty  feet  of  gravel  walk,  planted  with  trees  on  each 

side', .60  feet 

Eighty  feet  in  the  middle  for  carriages, 80  feet 

160  feet 
The  other  streets  are  of  the  following  dimensions,  viz. : 

Those  leading  to  the  public  buildings  or  markets,    .     .     130 
Others, 110-90 

In  order  to  execute  the  above  plan,  Mr.  Ellicott  drew  a  true 
meridian  line  by  celestial  observation,  which  passes  through 
area  intended  for  the  Congress  house.  This  line  he  crossed  by 
another  due  east  and  west,  and  which  passes  through  the  same 
area.  The  lines  were  accurately  measured,  and  made  the  basis 
on  which  the  whole  plan  was  executed.  He  ran  all  the  lines  by 
a  transit  instrument,  and  determined  the  acute  angles  by  actual 
measurement,  and  left  nothing  to  the  uncertainty  of  the  compass. 

REFERENCES. 

A.  The  equestrian  figure  of  George  Washington,  a  monu- 
ment voted  in  1783  by  the  late  Continental  Congress. 

B.  An  historic  column — also  intended  for  a  mile  or  itinerary 
column,  from  whose  station,  (at  a  mile  from  the  Federal  House,) 
all  distances  and  places  through  the  Continent  are  to  be  cal- 
culated. 

C.  A  Naval  itinerary  column  proposed  to  be  erected  to  cele- 
brate the  first  rise  of  a  navy,  and  to  stand  a  ready  monument  to 
perpetuate  its  progress  and  achievements. 


A   MAGNIFICENT   PLAN.  45 

D.  A  church  intended  for  national  purposes,  such  as  public 
prayers,  thanksgivings,  funeral  orations,  &c.,  and  assigned  to 
the  special  use  of  no  particular  sect  or  denomination,  but  equally 
open  to  all.     It  will  likewise  be  a  proper  shelter  for  such  monu- 
ments as  were  voted  by  the  late  Continental  Congress  for  those 
heroes  who  fell  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  for  such  others  as 
may  hereafter  be  decreed  by  the  voice  of  a  grateful  nation. 

E.  E.  E.  E.  E.     Five  grand  fountains  intended  with  a  con- 
stant spout  of  water. 

N.  B.  There  are  within  the  limits  of  the  springs  twenty-five 
good  springs  of  excellent  water  abundantly  supplied  in  the  dri- 
est seasons  of  the  year. 

F.  A  grand  cascade  formed  of  the  waters  of  the  sources  of 
the  Tiber. 

G.  G.     Public  walk,  being  a  square  of  1,200  feet,  through 
which  carriages  may  ascend  to  the  upper  square  of  the  Federal 
House. 

H.  A  grand  avenue,  400  feet  in  breadth  and  about  a  mile  in 
length,  bordered  with  gardens  ending  in  a  slope  from  the  house 
on  each  side ;  this  avenue  leads  to  the  monument  A,  and  con- 
nects the  Congress  garden  with  the 

I.     President's  park  and  the 

K.  Well  improved  field,  being  a  part  of  the  walk  from  the 
President's  House  of  about  1,800  feet  in  breadth  and  three- 
fourths  of  a  mile  in  length.  Every  lot  deep  colored  red,  with 
green  plats,  designating  some  of  the  situations  which  command 
the  most  agreeable  prospects,  and  which  are  best  calculated  for 
spacious  houses  and  gardens,  such  as  may  accommodate  foreign 
ministers,  &c. 

L.     Around  this  square  and  along  the 

M.  Avenue  from  the  two  bridges  to  the  Federal  House,  the 
pavements  on  each  side  will  pass  under  an  arched  way,  under 
whose  cover  shops  will  be  most  conveniently  and  agreeably 
situated.  This  street  is  106  feet  in  breadth,  and  a  mile  long. 

The  fifteen  squares  colored  yellow  are  proposed  to  be  divided 
among  the  several  States  of  the  Union,  for  each  of  them  to  im- 


46  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

prove,  or  subscribe  a  sum  additional  to  the  value  of  the  land  for 
that  purpose,  and  the  improvements  around  the  squares  to  be 
completed  in  a  limited  time.  The  centre  of  each  square  will 
admit  of  statues,  columns,  obelisks,  or  any  other  ornaments, 
such  as  the  different  States  may  choose  to  erect,  to  perpetuate 
not  only  the  memory  of  such  individuals  whose  councils  or  mili- 
tary achievements  were  conspicuous  in  giving  liberty  and  inde- 
pendence to  this  country,  but  those  whose  usefulness  hath 
rendered  them  worthy  of  imitation,  to  invite  the  youth  of  suc- 
ceeding generations  to  tread  in  the  paths  of  those  sages  or  he- 
roes whom  their  country  have  thought  proper  to  celebrate. 

The  situation  of  those  squares  is  such  that  they  are  most 
advantageously  seen  from  each  other,  and  as  equally  distributed 
over  the  whole  city  d'istrict,  and  connected  by  spacious  avenues 
round  the  grand  federal  improvements  and  as  contiguous  to 
them,  and  at  the  same  time  as  equally  distant  from  each  other 
as  circumstances  would  admit.  The  settlements  round  these 
squares  must  soon  become  connected.  The  mode  of  taking 
possession  of  and  improving  the  whole  district  at  first  must 
leave  to  posterity  a  grand  idea  of  the  patriotic  interest  which 
promoted  it. 

Two  months  after  the  publication  of  those  magnificent 
designs  for  posterity,  Major  L'Enfant  was  dismissed  from 
his  exalted  place.  He  was  a  Frenchman  and  a  genius. 
The  patrons  of  the  new  Capital  were  not  geniuses,  and 
not  Frenchmen,  reasons  sufficient  why  they  should  not 
and  did  not  "  get  on  "  long  in  peace  together.  Without 
doubt  the  Commissioners  were  provincial,  and  limited  in 
their  ideas  of  art  and  of  expenditure ;  with  their  colonial 
experience  they  could  scarcely  be  otherwise ;  while  L'En- 
fant was  metropolitan,  splendid,  and  willful,  in  his  ways 
as  well  as  in  his  designs.  Hampered,  held  back,  he  yet 
"builded  better  than  he  knew,"  builded  for  posterity. 
The  executor  and  the  designer  seldom  counterpart  each 


DISMISSING  A  MAN   OF   GENIUS.  47 

other.  L' Enfant  worried  Washington,  as  a  letter  from 
the  latter,  written  in  the  autumn  of  1791,  plainly  shows. 
He  says:  "It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  men  who 
possess  talents  which  fit  them  for  peculiar  purposes 
should  almost  invariably  be  under  the  influence  of  an 

untoward  disposition I  have  thought  that  for 

such  employment  as  he  is  now  engaged  in  for  prose- 
cuting public  works  and  carrying  them  into  effect,  Ma- 
jor L'Enfaut  was  better  qualified  than  any  one  who 
has  come  within  my  knowledge  in  this  country,  or  in- 
deed in  any  other.  I  had  no  doubt  at  the  same  time 
that  this  was  the  light  in  which  he  considered  himself." 
At  least,  L'Enfant  was  so  fond  of  his  new  "plan"  that  he 
would  not  give  it  up  to  the  Commissioners  to  be  used  as 
an  inducement  for  buying  city  lots,  even  at  the  command 
of  the  President,  giving  as  a  reason  that  if  it  was  open 
to  buyers,  speculators  would  build  up  his  beloved  avenues 
(which  he  intended,  in  time,  should  outrival  Versailles) 
with  squatter's  huts — -just  as  they  afterwards  did.  Then 
Duddington  House,  the  abode  of  Daniel  Carroll,  was  in 
the  way  of  one  of  his  triumphal  avenues,  and  he  ordered 
it  torn  down  without  leave  or  license,  to  the  rage  of  its 
owner  and  the  indignation  of  the  Commissioners.  Dud- 
dington House  was  rebuilt  by  order  of  the  government  in 
another  place,  and  stands  to-day  a  relic  of  the  past  amid  its 
old  forest  trees  on  Capitol  Hill.  Nevertheless  its  first  de- 
molition was  held  as  one  of  the  sins  of  the  uncontrollable 
L'Enfant,  who  was  summarily  discharged  March  6,  1792. 
His  dismissal  was  thus  announced  by  Jefferson  in  a  letter 
to  one  of  the  Commissioners  :  "  It  having  been  found  im- 
practicable to  employ  Major  L'Enfant  about  the  Federal 
City  in  that  degree  of  subordination  which  was  lawful 


48  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

and  proper,  he  has  been  notified  that  his  services  are  at 
an  end.  It  is  now  proper  that  he  should  receive  the  re- 
ward of  his  past  services,  and  the  wish  that  he  should 
have  no  just  cause  of  discontent  suggests  that  it  should 
be  liberal.  The  President  thinks  of  $2,500,  or  $3,000, 
but  leaves  the  determination  to  you."  Jefferson  wrote 
in  the  same  letter :  "  The  enemies  of  the  enterprise  will 
take  the  advantage  of  the  retirement  of  L'Enfant  to 
trumpet  the  whole  as  an  abortion."  But  L'Enfant  lived 
and  died  within  sight  of  the  dawning  city  of  his  love 
which  he  had  himself  created — and  never  wrought  it,  or 
its  projectors  any  harm  through  all  the  days  of  his  life. 
He  was  loyal  to  his  adopted  government,  but  to  his  last 
breath  clung  to  every  atom  of  his  personal  claim  upon  it, 
as  pugnaciously  as  he  did  to  his  maps,  when  commanded  to 
give  them  up.  He  lived  without  honor,  and  died  without 
fame.  Time  will  vindicate  one  and  perpetuate  the  other 
in  one  of  the  most  magnificent  capitals  of  earth.  His 
living  picture  lingers  still  with  more  than  one  old  inhab- 
itant. One  tells  of  him  in  an  unchangeable  "  green  sur- 
tout,  walking  across  the  commons  and  fields,  followed  by 
half-a-dozen  hunting  dogs."  Also,  of  reporting  to  him  at 
Fort  Washington  in  1814  to  do  duty,  and  of  first  receiv- 
ing a  glass  of  wine  from  the  old  soldier-architect  and  en- 
gineer before  he  told  him  what  to  do.  Mr.  Corcoran,  the 
banker,  tells  how  L'Enfant  looked  in  his  latter  days :  "  a 
rather  seedy,  stylish  old  man,  with  a  long  blue  or  green 
coat  buttoned  up  to  his  throat,  and  a  bell-crowned  hat ; 
a  little  moody  and  lonely,  like  one  wronged." 

He  lived  for  many  years  on  the  Digges'  farm,  the  estate 
now  owned  by  George  Riggs,  the  banker,  situated  about 
eight  miles  from  Washington.  He  was  buried  in  the 


COLUMBIA  SLATE  PEN.  FBEEDMAN'S  SAYINGS  BANK. 


SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTE. 


MA  JOB  L'ENFAVTS  BESTING  PLACE. 


A   FIGHTING   QUAKER   SUCCEEDS.  49 

family  burial-ground,  in  the  Digges'  garden.  When  the 
Digges  family  were  disinterred,  his  dust  was  left  nearly 
alone.  There  it  lies  to-day,  and  the  perpetually  growing 
splendor  of  the  ruling  city  which  he  planned,  is  his  only 
monument. 

He  was  succeeded  by  Andrew  Ellicott,  a  practical  en- 
gineer, born  in  Buck's  County,  Pennsylvania.  He  was 
called  a  man  of  "uncommon  talent"  and  "placid  tem- 
per." Neither  saved  him  from  conflicts,  (though  of  a 
milder  type  than  L'Enfant's,)  with  the  Commissioners. 
A  Quaker,  he  yet  commanded  a  battalion  of  militia  in 
the  Revolution,  and  "  was  thirty-seven  years  of  age  when 
he  rode  out  with  Washington  to  survey  the  embryo  city." 
He  finished,  (with  certain  modifications,)  the  work  which 
L'Enfant  began.  For. this  he  received  the  stupendous 
sum  of  $5.00  per  day  which,  with  "expenses,"  Jefferson 
thought  to  be  altogether  too  much.  In  his  letter  to  the 
Commissioners  dismissing  L'Enfant,  he  says :  "  Ellicott  is 
to  go  on  to  finish  laying  off  the  plan  on  the  ground,  and 
surveying  and  plotting  the  district.  I  have  remonstrated 
with  him  on  the  excess  of  five  dollars  a  day  and  his  ex- 
penses, and  he  has  proposed  striking  off  the  latter." 

After  Ellicott  concluded  laying  out  the  Capital,  he  be- 
came Surveyor-General  of  the  United  States;  laid  out 
the  towns  of  Erie,  Warren  and  Franklin,  in  Pennsylva- 
nia, and  built  Fort  Erie.  He  defined  the  boundary  divid- 
ing the  Republic  from  the  Spanish  Possessions ;  became 
Secretary  of  the  Pennsylvania  Land  Office,  and  in  1812 
Professor  of  Mathematics  at  West  Point,  where  he  died 
August,  1820,  aged  66. 

Ellicott's  most  remarkable  assistant  was  Benjamin 
Bancker,  a  negro.  He  was,  I  believe,  the  first  of  his 


50  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

race  to  distinguish  himself  in  the  new  Republic.  He  was 
born  with  a  genius  for  mathematics  and  the  exact  sci- 
ences, and  at  an  early  age  was  the  author  of  an  Almanac, 
which  attracted  the  attention  and  commanded  the  praise 
of  Thomas  Jefferson.  When  he  came  to  "run  the  lines" 
of  the  future  Capital,  he  was  sixty  years  of  age.  The 
caste  of  color  could  not  have  grown  to  its  hight  at  that 
day,  for  the  Commissioners  invited  him  to  an  official  seat 
with  themselves,  an  honor  which  he  declined.  The  pic- 
ture given  us  of  him  is  that  of  a  sable  Franklin,  large, 
noble,  and  venerable,  with  a  dusky  face,  white  hair,  a 
drab  coat  of  superfine  broadcloth,  and  a  Quaker  hat. 
He  was  born  and  buried  at  Ellicott's  Mills,  where  his 
grave  is  now  unmarked.  Here  is  a  chance  for  the  rising 
race  to  erect  a  monument  to  one  of  their  own  sons,  who 
in  the  face  of  ignorance  and  bondage  proved  himself 
"every  inch  a  man,"  in  intellectual  gifts  equal  to  the 
best. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

OLD   WASHINGTON. 

How  the  City  was  Built—"  A  Matter  of  Moonshine  "—Calls  for  Paper- 
Besieging  Congressmen — How  they  Raised  the  Money — The  Government 
Requires  Sponsors — Birth  of  the  Nation's  Capital — Seventy  Years  Ago 
in  Washington — Graphic  Picture  of  Early  Times — A  Much-Marrying 
City — Unwashed  Virginian  Belles — Stuck  in  the  Mud — Extraordinary 
Religious  Services. 

l^TOTHING  in  the  architecture  of  the  city  of  Wash- 
-L^l  ington  calls  forth  more  comment  from  strangers 
than  the  distance  between  the  Capitol  and  the  Executive 
Departments.  John  Randolph  early  called  it  "the  city 
of  magnificent  distances,"  and  it  is  still  a  chronic  and 
fashionable  complaint  to  decry  the  time  and  distance  it 
takes  to  get  any  where.  In  the  days  of  a  single  stage 
line  on  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  these  were  somewhat  la- 
mentable. But  five-minute  cars  abridge  distances,  and 
make  them  less  in  reality  than  even  in  the  city  of  New 
York.  It  is  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the  northern  end  of 
the  Navy-yard  bridge  to  the  Capitol,  a  mile  and  a  half 
from  the  Capitol  to  the  Executive  Mansion,  and  a  mile 
and  a  half  from  the  Executive  Mansion  to  the  corner  of 
Bridge  and  High  Streets,  Georgetown.  We  are  con- 
stantly hearing  exclamations  of  what  a  beautiful  city 
Washington  would  be  with  the  Capitol  for  the  centre  of 
a  square  formed  by  a  chain  of  magnificent  public  build- 
ings. John  Adams  wanted  the  Departments  around  the 


52  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Capitol.  George  Washington  but  a  short  time  before  his- 
death,  gave  in  a  letter  the  reasons  for  their  present  posi- 
tion. In  going  through  his  correspondence  one  finds  that 
there  is  nothing,  scarcely,  in  the  past,  present  or  future 
of  its  Capital,  for  which  the  Father  of  his  Country  has 
not  left  on  record  a  wise,  far-reaching  reason.  In  this 
letter,  he  says :  "  Where  or  how  the  houses  for  the 
President,  and  the  public  offices  may  be  fixed  is  to  me, 
as  an  individual,  a  matter  of  moonshine.  But  the  re- 
verse of  the  President's  motive  for  placing  the  latter 
near  the  Capitol  was  my  motive  for  fixing  them  by  the 
former.  The  daily  intercourse  which  the  secretaries  of 
departments  must  have  with  the  President  would  render 
a  distant  situation  extremely  inconvenient  to  them,  and 
not  much  less  so  would  one  be  close  to  the  Capitol ;  for 
it  was  the  universal  complaint  of  them  all,  that  while 
the  Legislature  was  in  session,  they  could  do  little  or  no 
business,  so  much  were  they  interrupted  by  the  individual 
visits  of  members  in  office  hours,  and  by  calls  for  paper. 
Many  of  them  have  disclosed  to  me  that  they  have  been 
obliged  often  to  go  home  and  deny  themselves  in  order 
to  transact  the  current  business,"  The  denizen  of  the 
present  time,  who  knows  the  Secretaries'  dread  of  the 
average  besieging  Congressman,  will  smile  to  find  that 
the  dread  was  as  potent  in  the  era  of  George  Washing- 
ton as  it  is  to-day.  A  more  conclusive  reason  could  not 
be  given  why  Capitol  and  Departments  should  be  a 
mile  apart.  The  newspapers  of  that  day  were  filled 
with  long  articles  on  the  laying  out  of  the  Capital  city. 
We  find  in  a  copy  of  The  Philadelphia  Herald  of  January 
4, 1795,  after  a  discussion  of  the  Mall — the  yet-to-be  gar- 
den extending  from  the  Capitol  to  the  President's  house — 


HOW   THEY   RAISED   THE    FUNDS.  53 

the  following  far-sighted  remarks  on  the  creation  of  the 
Capital.  It  says  :  "  To  found  a  city,  for  the  purpose  of 
making  it  the  depository  of  the  acts  of  the  Union,  and 
the  sanctuary  of  the  laws  which  must  one  day  rule  all 
North  America,  is  a  grand  and  comprehensive  idea,  which 
has  already  become,  with  propriety,  the  object  of  public 
respect.  The  city  of  Washington,  considered  under  such 
important  points  of  view,  could  not  be  calculated  on  a 
small  scale ;  its  extent,  the  disposition  of  its  avenues  and 
public  squares  should  all  correspond  with  the  magnitude 
of  the  objects  for  which  it  was  intended.  And  we  need 
only  cast  our  eyes  upon  the  situation  and  plan  of  the 
city  to  recognize  in  them  the  comprehensive  genius  of 
the  President,  to  whom  the  direction  of  the  business  has 
been  committed  by  Congress." 

The  letters  of  Washington  are  full  of  allusions  to  the 
annoyance  and  difficulty  attending  the  raising  of  suffi- 
cient money  to  make  the  Capitol  and  other  public  build- 
ings tenantable  by  the  time  specified,  1800.  He  seemed 
to  regard  the  prompt  completion  of  the  Capitol  as  an 
event  identical  with  the  perpetual  establishment  of  the 
government  at  Washington.  Virginia  had  made  a  dona- 
tion of  $120,000,  and  Maryland  one  of  $72,000;  these 
were  now  exhausted.  After  various  efforts  to  raise 
money  by  the  forced  sales  of  public  lots,  and  after  abort- 
ive attempts  to  borrow  money,  at  home  and  abroad,  on 
the  credit  of  these  lots,  amidst  general  embarrassments, 
while  Congress  withheld  any  aid  whatever,  the  urgency 
appeared  to  the  President  so  great  as  to  induce  him  to 
make  a  personal  application  to  the  State  of  Maryland  for  a 
loan,  which  was  successful,  and  the  deplorable  credit  of  the 
government  at  that  time  is  exhibited  in  the  fact  that  the 


54  TEN   TEAKS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

State  called  upon  the  credit  of  the  Commissioners  as  an. 
additional  guarantee  for  the  re-payment  of  the  amount, 
$100,000,  to  which  Washington  alludes  as  follows :  "  The 
necessity  of  the  case  justified  the  obtaining  it  on  almost 
any  terms ;  and  the  zeal  of  the  Commissioners  in  making 
themselves  liable  for  the  amount,  as  it  could  not  be  had 
without,  cannot  fail  of  approbation.  At  the  same  time  I 
must  confess  the  application  has  a  very  singular  appear- 
ance, and  will  not,  I  should  suppose,  be  very  grateful  to 
the  feelings  of  Congress." 

I  have  cited  but  a  few  of  the  tribulations  through 
which  the  Capital  of  the  nation  was  born.  Not  only 
was  the  growth  of  the  public  buildings  hindered  through 
lack  of  money,  but  also  through  the  "jealousies  and 
bickerings"  of  those  who  should  have  helped  to  build 
them.  Human  nature,  in  the  aggregate,  was  just  as  in- 
harmonious and  hard  to  manage  then  as  now.  The  Com- 
missioners did  not  always  agree.  Artisans,  imported  from 
foreign  lands,  made  alone  an  element  of  discord,  one  which 
Washington  dreaded  and  deprecated.  He  went  down 
with  his  beloved  Capital  into  the  Egypt  of  its  building. 
He  led  with  a  patience  and  wisdom  undreamed  of  and 
unappreciated  in  this  generation,  the  straggling  and  dis- 
cordant forces  of  the  Republic  from  oppression  to  free- 
dom, from  chaos  to  achievement — he  came  in  sight  of  the 
promised  land  of  fruition  and  prosperity,  but  he  did  not 
enter  it,  this  father  and  prophet  of  the  people  !  George 
Washington  died  in  December,  1799. 

The  city  of  Washington  was  officially  occupied  in 
June,  1800. 

The  only  adequate  impression  of  what  the  Capital  was 
at  the  time  of  its  first  occupancy,  we  must  receive  from 


A   RATHER    PECULIAR   PICTURE.  55 

those  who  beheld  it  with  living  eyes.  Fortunately  sev- 
eral have  left  graphic  pictures  of  the  appearance  which 
the  city  presented  at  that  time.  President  John  Adams 
took  possession  of  the  unfinished  Executive  Mansion  in 
November,  1800.  During  the  month  Mrs.  Adams  wrote 
to  her  daughter,  Mrs.  Smith,  as  follows:  "I  arrived 
here  on  Sunday  last,  and  without  meeting  with  any  ac- 
cident worth  noticing,  except  losing  ourselves  when  we 
left  Baltimore,  and  going  eight  or  nine  miles  on  the 
Frederic  road,  by  which  means  we  were  obliged  to  go 
the  other  eight  through  the  woods,  where  we  wandered 

for  two  hours  without  finding  guide  or  path But 

woods  are  all  you  see  from  Baltimore  till  you  reach  the 
city,  which  is  only  so  in  name.  Here  and  there  is  a 
small  cot,  without  a  glass  window,  interspersed  amongst 
the  forests,  through  which  you  travel  miles  without  see- 
ing any  human  being.  In  the  city  there  are  buildings 
enough,  if  they  were  compact  and  finished,  to  accommo- 
date Congress  and  those  attached  to  it ;  but  as  they  are, 
and  scattered  as  they  are,  I  see  no  great  comfort  for  them. 

If  the  twelve  years  in  which  this  place  has  been 

considered  as  the  future  seat  of  government  had  been  im- 
proved as  they  would  have  been  in  New  England,  very 
many  of  the  present  inconveniences  would  have  been  re- 
moved. It  is  a  beautiful  spot,  capable  of  any  improve- 
ment, and  the  more  I  view  it  the  more  I  am  delighted 
with  it." 

Hon.  John  Cotton  Smith,  of  Connecticut,  a  distin- 
guished member  of  Congress,  of  the  Federal  school  of 
politics,  also  gives  his  picture  of  Washington  in  1800: 
"  Our  approach  to  the  city  was  accompanied  with  sensa- 
tions not  easily  described.  One  wing  of  the  Capitol  only 


56  TEN   TEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

had  been  erected,  which,  with  the  President's  house,  a 
mile  distant  from  it,  both  constructed  with  white  sand- 
stone, were  shining  objects  in  dismal  contrast  with  the 
scene  around  them.  Instead  of  recognizing  the  avenues 
and  streets  portrayed  on  the  plan  of  the  city,  not  one 
was  visible,  unless  we  except  a  road,  with  two  buildings 
on  each  side  of  it,  called  the  New  Jersey  Avenue.  The 
Pennsylvania,  leading,  as  laid  down  on  paper,  from  the 
Capitol  to  the  presidential  mansion,  was  then  nearly  the 
whole  distance  a  deep  morass,  covered  with  alder  bushes 
which  were  cut  through  the  width  of  the  intended  ave- 
nue during  the  then  ensuing  winter.  Between  the  Pres- 
ident's house  and  Georgetown  a  block  of  houses  had  been 
erected,  which  then  bore  and  may  still  bear,  the  name  of 
the  six  buildings.  There  were  also  other  blocks,  consist- 
ing of  two  or  three  dwelling-houses,  in  different  direc- 
tions, and  now  and  then  an  insulated  wooden  habitation, 
the  intervening  spaces,  and  indeed  the  surface  of  the  city 
generally,  being  covered  with  shrub-oak  bushes  on  the 
higher  grounds,  and  on  the  marshy  soil  either  trees  or 
some  sort  of  shrubbery.  Nor  was  the  desolate  aspect  of 
the  place  a  little  augmented  by  a  number  of  unfinished 
edifices  at  Greenleaf 's  Point,  and  on  an  eminence  a  short 
distance  from  it,  commenced  by  an  individual  whose 
name  they  bore,  but  the  state  of  whose  funds  compelled 
him  to  abandon  them,  not  only  unfinished,  but  in  a  ruin- 
ous condition.  There  appeared  to  be  but  two  really  com- 
fortable habitations  in  all  respects,  within  the  bounds  of 
the  city,  one  of  which  belonged  to  Dudley  Carroll,  Esq., 
and  the  other  to  Notley  Young,  who  were  the  former 
proprietors  of  a  large  proportion  of  the  land  appropri- 
ated to  the  city,  but  who  reserved  for  their  own  accom- 


MR.  PEACOCK'S  DOMESTIC  ARRANGEMENTS.         57 

modation  ground  sufficient  for  gardens  and  other  useful 
appurtenances.  The  roads  in  every  direction  were  muddy 
and  unimproved.  A  sidewalk  was  attempted  in  one  in- 
stance by  a  covering  formed  of  the  chips  of  the  stones 
which  had  been  hewn  for  the  Capitol.  It  extended  but  a 
little  way  and  was  of  little  value,  for  in  dry  weather  the 
sharp  fragments  cut  our  shoes,  and  in  wet  weather  covered 
them  with  white  mortar,  in  short,  it  was  a  "new  settle- 
ment." The  houses,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  had  been 
very  recently  erected,  and  the  operation  greatly  hurried 
in  view  of  the  approaching  transfer  of  the  national  gov- 
ernment. A  laudable  desire  was  manifested  by  what  few 
citizens  and  residents  there  were,  to  render  our  condition 
as  pleasant  as  circumstances  would  permit.  One  of  the 
blocks  of  buildings  already  mentioned  was  situated  on  the 
east  side  of  what  was  intended  for  the  Capitol  square,  and 
being  chiefly  occupied  by  an  extensive  and  well-kept  ho- 
tel, accommodated  a  goodly  number  of  the  members. 
Our  little  party  took  lodgings  with  a  Mr.  Peacock,  in 
one  of  the  houses  on  New-  Jersey  Avenue,  with  the  ad- 
dition of  Senators  Tracy  of  Connecticut,  and  Chipman 
and  Paine  of  Vermont,  and  Representatives  Thomas  of 
Maryland,  and  Dana,  Edmond  and  Griswold  of  Connec- 
ticut. Speaker  Sedgwick  was  allowed  a  room  to  himself 
— the  rest  of  us  in  pairs.  To  my  excellent  friend  Dav- 
enport, and  myself,  was  allotted  a  spacious  and  decently 
furnished  apartment  with  separate  beds,  on  the  lower 
floor.  Our  diet  was  varied,  but  always  substantial, 
and  we  were  attended  by  active  and  faithful  servants. 
A  large  proportion  of  the  Southern  members  took  lodg- 
ings at  Georgetown,  which,  though  of  a  superior  order, 
were  three  miles  distant  from  the  Capitol,  and  of  course 


58  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

rendered  the  daily  employment  of  hackney  coaches  in- 
dispensable. 

Notwithstanding  the  unfavorable  aspect  which  Wash- 
ington presented  on  our  arrival,  I  can  not  sufficiently 
express  my  admiration  of  its  local  position.  From  the 
Capitol  you  have  a  distinct  view  of  its  fine  undulating 
surface,  situated  at  the  confluence  of  the  Potomac  and  its 
Eastern  Branch,  the  wide  expanse  of  that  majestic  river 
to  the  bend  at  Mount  Vernon,  the  cities  of  Alexandria 
and  Georgetown,  and  the  cultivated  fields  and  blue  hills 
of  Maryland  and  Virginia  on  either  side  of  the  river,  the 
whole  constituting  a  prospect  of  surpassing  beauty  and 
grandeur.  The  city  has  also  the  inestimable  advantage 
of  delightful  water,  in  many  instances  flowing  from  co- 
pious springs,  and  always  attainable  by  digging  to  a 
moderate  depth,  to  which  may  be  added  the  singular 
fact  that  such  is  the  due  admixture  of  loam  and  clay  in 
the  soil  of  a  great  portion  of  the  city  that  a  house  may 
be  built  of  brick  made  of  the  earth  dug  from  the  cellar, 
hence  it  was  not  unusual  to  see  the  remains  of  a  brick- 
kiln near  the  newly-erected  dwelling-house  or  other  edi- 
fice. In  short,  when  we  consider  not  only  these  advan- 
tages, but  what,  in  a  national  point  of  view  is  of  superior 
importance,  the  location  on  a  fine  navigable  river,  acces- 
sible to  the  whole  maritime  frontier  of  the  United  States, 
and  yet  easily  rendered  defensible  against  foreign  inva- 
sion,— and  that  by  the  facilities  of  inter-population  of 
the  Western  States,  and  indeed  of  the  whole  nation,  with 
less  inconvenience  than  any  other  conceivable  situation, — 
we  must  acknowledge  that  its  selection  by  Washington 
as  the  permanent  seat  of  the  federal  government,  affords 
a  striking  exhibition  of  the  discernment,  wisdom  and  fore- 


PRETTY    GIRLS    OF    SEVENTY   YEARS    AGO.  59 

t 

cast  which  characterized  that  illustrious  man.  Under  this 
impression,  whenever,  during  the  six  years  of  my  connec- 
tion with  Congress,  the  question  of  removing  the  seat  of 
government  to  some  other  place  was  agitated — and  the 
proposition  was  frequently  made — I  stood  almost  alone, 
as  a  northern  man,  in  giving  my  vote  in  the  negative." 

Sir  Augustus  Foster,  secretary  of  legation  to  the  Brit- 
ish minister  at  Washington,  during  the  years  1804-6, 
has  left  an  amusing  account  on  record  both  of  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  Capital  and  the  state  of  its  society 
during  the  administration  of  President  Jefferson  :  "  The 
Spanish  envoy,  De  Caso  Yrujo,  told  Sir  Augustus  it  was 
difficult  to  procure  a  decent  dinner  in  the  new  Capital 
without  sending  the  distance  of  sixty  miles  for  its  mate- 
rials. Things  had  mended  somewhat  before  the  arrival 
of  Sir  Augustus,  but  he  still  found  enough  to  surprise 
and  bewilder  him  in  the  desolate  vastness  and  mean  ac- 
commodations of  the  unshaped  metropolis." 

Of  private  citizens  Sir  Augustus  says:  "Very  few 
private  gentlemen  have  their  houses  in  Washington.  I 
only  recollect  three,  Mr.  Brent,  Mr.  Tayloe,  and  Mr.  Car- 
roll." ....  Most  of  the  members  of  Congress,  it  is  true, 
keep  to  their  lodgings,  but  still  there  are  a  sufficient 
number  of  them  who  are  sociable,  or  whose  families 
come  to  the  city  for  a  season,  and  there  is  no  want  of 
handsome  ladies  for  the  balls,  especially  at  Georgetown ; 
indeed,  I  never  saw  prettier  girls  anywhere.  As  there 
are  but  few  of  them,  however,  in  proportion  to  the  great 
number  of  men  who  frequent  the  places  of  amusement 
in  the  federal  city,  it  is  one  of  the  most  marrying  places  on 
the  whole  continent Meagre  the  march  of  intel- 
lect so  much  vaunted  in  the  present  century ;  the  literary 


60  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

education  of  these  ladies  is  far  from  being  worthy  of  the 
age  of  knowledge,  and  conversation  is  apt  to  flag,  though 
a  seat  by  the  ladies  is  always  much  coveted.  Dancing 
and  music  serve  to  eke  out  the  time,  but  one  got  tired  of 
hearing  the  same  song  everywhere,  even  when  it  was : 

"  Just  like  love  is  yonder  rose." 

"  No  matter  how  this  was  sung,  the  words  alone  were 
the  man-traps  ;  the  belle  of  the  evening  was  declared  to 
be  just  like  both,  and  the  people  looked  around  as  if  the 
listener  was  expected  *to  become  on  the  instant  very  ten- 
der, and  to  propose Between  the  young  ladies, 

who  generally  not  only  good  looking,  but  good  tempered, 
and  if  not  well  informed,  capable  of  becoming  so,  and 
the  ladies  of  a  certain  time  of  life,  there  is  usually  a  wide 
gap  in  society,  young  married  women  being  but  seldom 
seen  in  the  world ;  as  they  approach,  however,  to  middle 
age,  they  are  apt  to  become  romantic,  those  in  particular 
who  live  in  the  country  and  have  read  novels  fancying  all 
manner  of  romantic  things,  and  returning  to  the  Capital 
determined  to  have  an  adventure  before  they  again  retire ; 
or  on  doing  some  wondrous  act  which  shall  make  them 
be  talked  about  in  all  after  time.  Others  I  have  known 
to  contract  an  aversion  to  water,  and  as  a  substitute,  cover 
their  faces  and  bosoms  with  hair  powder,  in  order  to  ren- 
der the  skin  pure  and  delicate.  This  was  peculiarly  the 
case  with  some  Virginia  damsels,  who  came  to  the  halls 
at  Washington,  and  who  in  consequence  were  hardly  less 
tolerable  than  negroes.  There  were  but  few  cases  of  this 
I  must  confess,  though  as  regards  the  use  of  the  powder, 
they  were  not  so  uncommon,  and  at  my  balls  I  thought 
it  advisable  to  put  on  the  tables  of  the  toilette  room  not 


A  FOREIGNER'S  PICTURE.  61 

only  rouge,  but  hair  powder,  as  well  as  blue  powder, 
which  had  some  customers 

"  In  going  to  assemblies  one  had  sometimes  to  drive 
three  or  four  miles  within  the  city  bounds,  and  very  often 
at  the  great  risk  of  an  overthrow,  or  of  being  what  is 

termed  '  stalled,'  or  stuck  in  the  mud Cards  were 

a  great  resource  during  the  evening,  and  gaming  was  all 
the  fashion,  at  brag  especially,  for  the  men  who  frequented 
society  were  chiefly  from  Virginia  or  the  Western  States, 
and  were  very  fond  of  this  the  w7orst  gambling  of  all  games, 
as  being  one  of  countenance  as  well  as  of  cards.  Loo  was 
the  innocent  diversion  of  the  ladies,  who  when  they  looed 
pronounced  the  word  in  a  very  mincing  manner 

"  Church  service  can  certainly  never  be  called  an  amuse- 
ment ;  but  from  the  variety  of  persons  who  are  allowed 
to  preach  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  there  was 
doubtless  some  alloy  of  curiosity  in  the  motives  which  led 
one  to  go  there.  Though  the  regular  Chaplain  was  a  Pres- 
byterian, sometimes  a  Methodist,  a  minister  of  the  Church 
of  England,  or  a  Quaker,  or  sometimes  even  a  woman 
took  the  speaker's  chair;  and  I  don't  think  that  there 
was  much  devotion  among  the  majority.  The  New  Eng- 
landers,  generally  speaking,  are  very  religious;  though 
there  are  many  exceptions,  I  cannot  say  so  much  for  the 
Marylanders,  and  still  less  for  the  Virginians." 

Notwithstanding  the  incongruous  and  somewhat  dis- 
graceful picture  which  Sir  Augustus  paints  of  the  Capital 
City  of  the  new  Republic,  he  goes  on  to  say:  "In  spite 
of  its  inconveniences  and  desolate  aspect,  it  was  I  think 
the  most  agreeable  town  to  reside  in  for  any  length  of 
time,"  which  if  true  insures  our  pity  for  what  the  remain- 
der of  our  native  land  must  have  been. 
i 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  CAPITAL  OF  THE  NATION. 

A  Ward  of  Congress — Expectations  Disappointed — Funds  Low  and  People 
Few — Slow  Progress  of  the  City — First  Idea  of  a  National  University — • 
A  Question  of  Importance  Discussed — Generous  Proposition  of  George 
Washington— Faith  Under  Difficulties — Transplanting  an  Entire  Col- 
lege— An  Old  Proposition  in  a  New  Shape — What  Washington  "Society" 
Lacks — The  Lombardy  Poplars  Refuse  to  Grow — Perils  of  the  Way — A 
Long  Plain  of  Mud — "  The  Forlornest  City  in  Christendom  "—Egyptian 
Dreariness — Incomplete  and  Desolate  State  of  Affairs — The  End  of  an 
Expensive  Canal — The  Water  of  Tiber  Creek — American  "  Boys  "  on  the 
March — Divided  Allegiance  of  Old — The  Stirring  of  a  Nation's  Heart — 
Ready  to  March  to  her  Defense  —  A  Personal  Interest  —  Patriotism 
Aroused— The  First-born  City  of  the  Republic— Truly  the  Capital  of 
the  Nation. 

WASHINGTON  was  incorporated  as  a  city  by  act  of 
Congress,  passed  May  3, 1802.  The  city,  planned 
solely  as  the  National  Capital,  was  laid  out  on  a  scale  so 
grand  and  extensive  that  scanty  municipal  funds  alone 
would  never  have  been  sufficient  for  its  proper  improve- 
ment. From  the  beginning  it  was  the  ward  of  Congress. 
Its  magnificent  avenues,  squares  and  public  buildings, 
could  receive  due  decoration  from  no  fund  more  scanty 
than  a  national  appropriation.  At  first  Congress  appro- 
priated funds  with  much  spirit  and  some  liberality,  but 
there  were  many  reasons  why  its  zeal  and  munificence 
waned  together.  At  this  day  it  has  not  fulfilled  the  most 
sanguine  expectations  of  its  founders.  In  Jefferson's 


GENEROUS   PROPOSAL   OF   GEORGE   WASHINGTON.       63 

time  its  population  numbered  but  five  thousand  persons, 
and  for  forty  years  its  increase  of  population  only  aver- 
aged about  five  hundred  and  fifty  per  annum.  Many 
stately  vessels  sail  down  the  Potomac  to  the  Chesa- 
peake and  the  James  and  out  to  the  ocean;  but  the 
Potomac  is  far  from  being  the  highway  of  commerce. 
The  wharves  of  Washington  and  Georgetown  are  empty 
compared  with  those  of  New  York,  or  even  of  Balti- 
more. For  generations  there  was  neither  commerce 
nor  manufacture  to  induce  men  of  capital  to  remove 
from  large  cities  of  active  business  to  the  new  city  in 
the  wilderness,  whose  very  life  depended  on  the  will 
of  a  majority  of  Congress.  Washington's  idea  of  the 
National  Capital  far  outleaped  his  century.  His  vision 
of  its  future  greatness  comprehended  all  that  the  capital 
of  a  great  nation  should  be.  He  foresaw  it,  not  only  as 
the  seat  of  national  commerce,  but  the  seat  of  national 
learning.  One  of  the  dearest  projects  of  his  last  days  was 
the  founding  of  a  National  University  at  the  city  of  Wash- 
ington. The  following  references  to  this  subject  in  a 
letter  from  him  to  the  commissioners  of  the  Federal  dis- 
tricts, with  an  extract  from  his  last  will,  but  faintly  ex- 
press the  intense  interest  which  he  manifested  in  the 
National  University,  both  in  his  daily  life,  and  familiar 
correspondence : — 

WASHINGTON   TO  COMMISSIONERS   OP  FEDERAL  DISTRICTS. 

"  The  Federal  city,  from  its  centrality  and  the  advantages  which 
in  other  respects  it  must  have  over  any  other  place  in  the  United 
States,  ought  to  be  preferred  as  a  proper  site  for  such  a  Univer- 
sity. And  if  a  plan  can  be  adopted  upon  a  scale  as  extensive 
as  I  have  described,  and  the  execution  of  it  should  commence 


64  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

under  favorable  auspices  in  a  reasonable  time,  with  a  fair 
prospect  of  success,  I  will  grant  in  perpetuity  fifty  shares  in 
the  navigation  of  the  Potomac  River  toward  the  endowment 
of  it." 

FEOM  WASHINGTON'S  WILL. 

"  I  give  and  bequeath  in  perpetuity  the  fifty  shares  which  I 
hold  in  the  Potomac  Company  (under  the  aforesaid  acts  of  the 
legislature  of  Virginia)  toward  the  endowment  of  a  University 
to  be  established  within  the  limits  of  the  District  of  Columbia, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  general  government,  if  that  govern- 
ment should  incline  to  extend  a  fostering  hand  toward  it.  And 
until  such  Seminary  is  established  and  the  funds  arising  from 
these  shares  shall  be  needed  for  its  support,  my  further  will  and 
desire  is,  that  the  profits  arising  therefrom  whenever  the  divi- 
dends are  made  be  laid  out  in  purchasing  stock  in  the  Bank  of 
Columbia,  or  some  other  bank  at  the  discretion  of  my  executors, 
or  by  the  Treasurer  of  the  United  States  for  the  time  being, 
under  the  direction  of  Congress,  providing  that  honorable  body 
should  patronize  the  measure;  and  the  dividends  proceeding 
from  the  purchase  of  such  stock  are  to  be  vested  in  more  stock, 
and  so  on,  till  a  sum  adequate  to  the  accomplishment  of  the 
object  be  obtained,  of  which  I  have  not  the  smallest  doubt  before 
many  years  pass  away,  even  if  no  aid  and  encouragement  is 
given  by  legislative  authority,  or  from  any  other  source." 

The  correspondence  of  Washington  and  Jefferson  abound 
with  consultations  concerning  this  great  National  Univer- 
sity. During  his  stay  in  Europe,  Jefferson  had  become 
personally  conversant  with  its  ancient  seats  of  learning, 
and  longed  to  see  somewhat  of  the  splendor  of  their  cul- 
ture transferred  to  his  own  native  land.  So  great  was  his 
zeal  on  this  subject,  both  he  and  John  Adams  favored 
the  plan  at  one  time  of  transferring  to  this  city  the  entire 
college  of  Geneva,  professors,  students,  all.  But  George 


A   LEARNED   PROPOSITION.  65 

Washington  opposed  the  transplanting  of  an  entire  body 
of  foreign  scholars  to  the  new  Republic,  almost  as  ear- 
nestly as  he  did  that  of  a  horde  of  foreign  laborers  to 
build  the  Capitol,  he  believing  both  to  be  inimical  to  the 
growth  of  republican  principles  and  feelings  in  a  newly 
created  republic. 

Three-fourths  of  a  century  have  passed  since  Washing- 
ton, Jefferson  and  Adams  consulted  together  concerning 
the  National  University  of  the  future.  Alas  !  it  is  still  of 
the  future.  The  dream  of  its  fulfillment  was  dearer  to 
the  father  of  his  country,  probably,  than  to  any  other 
mortal.  The  explicit  provision  made  for  it  in  his  will 
proves  this.  That  bequest  went  finally,  I  believe,  to  a 
college  in  Virginia.  Columbia  College,  feeble,  small  and 
old,  is  the  nearest  approach  to  the  National  University 
of  which  the  National  Capital  can  boast  to-day.  Strange 
after  the  lapse  of  nearly  a  century,  the  other  evening  the 
friends  of  this  feeble  and  stunted  college,  including  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  high  officials,  learned  pro- 
fessors, foreign  ministers,  and  gentlemen  of  the  press, 
assembled  in  Wormley's  comfortable  dining-room,  and 
over  an  "  epicurean  banquet "  discussed  what  Jefferson 
and  Washington  did  in  their  letters — a  National  Univer- 
sity for  the  National  Capital.  The  desire  of  Washington 
although  not  yet  fulfilled,  must  in  time  become  a  reality. 
The  National  Capital,  already  the  centre  of  fashion,  and 
rapidly  becoming  the  seat  of  National  Science  as  well  as 
of  National  Politics  and  Government,  is  the  natural  seat 
of  National  Learning.  The  educational  element,  the 
high-toned  culture  which  always  marks  the  mental  and 
moral  atmosphere  surrounding  a  university  is  to-day  the 
marked  lack  of  what  is  termed  "  society  in  Washington." 


66  TEN   TEAES    IN   WASHINGTON. 

The  United  States  Government  is  doing  much  for  science. 
There  is  a  greater  number  of  persons  actively  devoted  to 
scientific  pursuits  in  the  National  Capital  than  in  any  other 
city  of  the  Union.  Washington  is  already  the  seat  of 
more  purely  intellectual  activity  than  any  other  Ameri- 
can city.  The  scientific  library  of  the  Smithsonian  In- 
stitute is  one  of  the  best  in  the  world.  New  departments 
of  the  Government  devoted  to  Science  are  continually 
being  established  on  sure  and  ever-spreading  foundations. 
All  these  facts  point  to  the  final  and  crowning  one — the 
University  of  the  Nation  at  the  National  Capital. 

For  a  time,  after  the  incorporation  of  the  city,  its  foun- 
ders and  patrons  zealously  pursued  plans  for  its  improve- 
ment. But  failing  funds,  a  weak  municipality,  and  indif- 
ferent Congresses,  did  their  work,  and  for  many  years 
"  the  city  of  magnificent  distances  "  had  little  but  those 
distances  of  which  to  boast.  Jefferson  had  Pennsyjvania 
avenue  planted  with  double  rows  of  Lombardy  poplars 
from  Executive  Mansion  to  Capitol,  in  imitation  of  the 
walk  and  drive  in  Berlin  known  as  Unter  den  Linden. 
But  the  tops  of  the  poplars  did  not  flourish,  and  the 
roots  were  troublesome,  and  in  1832  the  hoped  for 
arcade  came  to  naught.  In  truth  Pennsylvania  avenue 
was  one  long  plain  of  mud,  punched  with  dangerous 
holes  and  seamed  with  deep  ravines.  The  interlacing 
roots  of  the  poplars  made  these  holes  and  ravines  the 
more  dangerous,  till  an  appropriation,  during  the  admin- 
istration of  Jackson,  caused  them  to  be  dug  up  and  the 
entire  avenue  to  be  macadamized,  notwithstanding  a  large 
minority  in  Congress  could  find  no  authority  in  the  Con- 
stitution for  such  an  unprecedented  provision  for  the  pub- 
lic safety.  Every  Congress  was  packed  with  strict  con- 


WONDERFUL    CHANGES.  b7 

st;  uctionists  and  economists,  who  opposed  every  effort  to 
improve  the  National  Capital.  Many,  narrow,  sectional 
and  provincial,  had  no  comprehension  of  the  plan  of  a 
city  founded  to  meet  the  wants  of  a  great  nation,  rather 
than  to  suit  the  convenience  of  a  meagre  population.  A 
city  planned  to  become  the  magnificent  Capital  of  a  vast 
people  could  not  fail  through  its  very  dimensions  to  be 
oppressive  to  its  citizens,  if  the  chief  weight  of  its  im- 
provement was  laid  upon  their  scanty  resources.  A 
National  Capital  could  only  be  fitly  built  by  the  Nation. 
For  many  years  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  refused 
to  do  this  to  any  fit  degree,  and  the  result  for  more  than 
one  generation  was  the  most  forlorn  city  in  Christendom. 
At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  friends  of  Columbia  College 
Attorney  General  Williams  stated  that  when  he  first 
visited  Washington,  in  1853,  the  "  Egypt "  of  Indiana 
could  not  compare  in  dreariness  and  discomfort  with  the 
Capital  of  the  Nation. 

In  1862  Washington  was  a  third  rate  Southern  city. 
Even  its  mansions  were  without  modern  improvements 
or  conveniences,  while  the  mass  of  its  buildings  were  low, 
small  and  shabby  in  the  extreme.  The  avenues,  superb 
in  length  and  breadth,  in  their  proportions  afforded  a 
gainful  contrast  to  the  hovels  and  sheds  which  often 
lined  them  on  either  side  for  miles.  Scarcely  a  public 
building  was  finished.  No  goddess  of  liberty  held  tablary 
guard  over  the  dome  of  the  Capitol.  Scaffolds,  engines 
and  pulleys  everywhere  defaced  its  vast  surfaces  of  gleam- 
ing marble.  The  northern  wing  of  the  Treasury  building 
was  not  even  begun.  Where  it  now  stands  then  stood 
the  State  departments,  crowded,  dingy  and  old.  Even 
the  southern  wing  of  the  Treasury  was  not  completed  as 


68  TEN  YEAES   IN   WASHINGTON. 

it  was  begun.  Iron  spikes  and  saucers  on  its  western 
side  had  been  used  to  conclude  the  beautiful  Greek  orna- 
mentation begun  with  the  building.  All  public  offices, 
magnificent  in  conception,  seemed  to  be  in  a  state  of 
crude  incompleteness.  Everything  worth  looking  at 
seemed  unfinished.  Everything  finished  looked  as  if  it 
should  have  been  destroyed  generations  before.  Even 
Pennsylvania  avenue,  the  grand  thoroughfare  of  the  Cap- 
ital, was  lined  with  little  two  and  three  story  shops,  which 
in  architectural  comeliness  have  no  comparison  with  their 
ilk  of  the  Bowery,  New  York.  Not  a  street  car  ran  in  the 
city.  A  few  straggling  omnibuses  and  helter-skelter  hacks 
were  the  only  public  conveyances  to  bear  members  of  Con- 
gress to  and  fro  between  the  Capitol  and  their  remote  lodg- 
ings. In  spring  and  autumn  the  entire  west  end  of  the  city 
was  one  vast  slough  of  impassible  mud.  One  would  have 
to  walk  many  blocks  before  he  found  it  possible  to  cross  a 
single  street,  and  that  often  one  of  the  most  fashionable 
of  the  city.  "  The  water  of  Tiber  Creek,"  which  in  the 
magnificent  intentions  of  the  founders  of  the  city  were 
"  to  be  carried  to  the  top  of  Congress  House,  to  fall  in  a 
cascade  of  twenty  feet  in  height  and  fifty  in  breadth,  and 
thence  to  run  in  three  falls  through  the  gardens  into  the 
grand  canal,"  instead  stretched  in  ignominious  stagnation 
across  the  city,  oozing  at  last  through  green  scum 
and  slime  into  the  still  more  ignominious  canal,  which 
stood  an  open  sewer  and  cess-pool,  the  receptacle  of 
all  abominations,  the  pest-breeder  and  disgrace  of  the 
city.  Toward  the  construction  of  this  canal  the  city  of 
Washington  gave  $1,000,000  and  Georgetown  and  Alex- 
andria $250,000  each.  Its  entire  cost  was  $12,000,000. 
It  was  intended  to  be  another  artery  to  bring  the  com- 


DURING   THE    WAR.  69 

merce  of  the  world  to  Washington,  and  yet  the  Wash- 
ington end  of  it  had  come  to  this  ! 

Capitol  Hill,  dreary,  desolate  and  dirty,  stretched  away 
into  an  uninhabited  desert,  high  above  the  mud  of  the 
West  End.  Arid  hill,  and  sodden  plain  showed  alike  the 
horrid  trail  of  war.  Forts  bristled  above  every  hill-top. 
Soldiers  were  entrenched  at  every  gate-way.  Shed  hos- 
pitals covered  acres  on  acres  in  every  suburb.  Churches, 
artrhalls  and  private  mansions  were  filled  with  the 
wounded  and  dying  of  the  American  armies.  The  end- 
less roll  of  the  army  wagon  seemed  never  still.  The 
rattle  of  the  anguish-laden  ambulance,  the  piercing  cries 
of  the  suiferers  whom  it  carried,  made  morning,  noon  and 
night  too  dreadful  to  be  borne.  The  streets  were  filled 
with  marching  troops,  with  new  regiments,  their  hearts 
strong  and  eager,  their  virgin  banners  all  untarnished  as 
they  marched  up  Pennsylvania  avenue,  playing  "The  girl 
I  left  behind  me,"  as  if  they  had  come  to  holiday  glory — 
to  easy  victory.  But  the  streets  were  filled  no  less  with 
soldiers  foot-sore,  sun-burned,  and  weary,  their  clothes 
begrimed,  their  banners  torn,  their  hearts  sick  with 
hope  deferred,  ready  to  die  with  the  anguish  of  long  de- 
feat. Every  moment  had  its  drum-beat,  every  hour  was 
alive  with  the  tramp  of  troops  going,  coming.  How 
many  an  American  "  boy,"  marching  to  its  defence,  be- 
holding for  the  first  time  the  great  dome  of  the  Capitol 
rising  before  his  eyes,  comprehended  in  one  deep  gaze,  as 
he  never  had  in  his  whole  life  before,  all  that  that  Capi- 
tol meant  to  him,  and  to  every  free  man.  Never,  till  the 
Capital  had  cost  the  life  of  the  beautiful  and  brave  of  our 
land,  did  it  become  to  the  heart  of  the  American  citizen 
of  the  nineteenth  century  the  object  of  personal  love  that 


70  TEN    YEARS    IN    WASHINGTON. 

it  was  to  George  Washington.  To  that  hour  the  intense 
loyalty  to  country,  the  pride  in  the  National  Capital  which 
amounts  to  a  passion  in  the  European,  in  the  American 
had  been  diffused,  weakened  and  broken.  In  ten  thou- 
sand instances  State  allegiance  had  taken  the  place  of 
love  of  country.  Washington  was  nothing  but  a  place 
in  which  Congress  could  meet  and  politicians  carry  on 
their  games  at  high  stakes  for  power  and  place.  New 
York  was  the  Capital  to  the  New  Yorker,  Boston  to  the 
New  England er,  New  Orleans  to  the  Southerner,  Chicago 
to  the  man  of  the  West.  There  was  no  one  central  rally- 
ing point  of  patriots  to  the  universal  nation.  The  unfin- 
ished Washington  monument  stood  the  monument  of  the 
nation's  neglect  and  shame.  What  Westminster  Abbey 
and  Hall  were  to  the  Englishman,  what  Notre  Dame  and 
the  Tuileries  were  to  the  Frenchman,  the  unfinished 
and  desecrated  Capitol  had  never  been  to  the  average 
American.  Anarchy  threatened  it.  In  an  hour  the 
heart  of  the  nation  was  centered  in  the  Capital.  The 
nation  was  ready  to  march  to  its  defence.  Every  public 
building,  every  warehouse  was  full  of  troops.  Washing- 
ton city  was  no  longer  only  a  name  to  the  mother  wait- 
ing and  praying  in  the  distant  hamlet;  her  boy  was 
camped  on  the  floor  of  the  Rotunda.  No  longer  a  far  off 
myth  to  the  lonely  wife ;  her  husband  held  guard  upon 
the  heights  which  defended  the  Capital.  No  longer  a 
place  good  for  nothing  but  political  schemes  to  the  vil- 
lage sage ;  his  boy,  wrapped  in  his  blanket,  slept  on  the 
stone  steps  under  the  shadow  of  the  great  Treasury.  The 
Capital,  it  was  sacred  at  last  to  tens  of  thousands,  whose 
beloved  languished  in  the  wards  of  its  hospitals  or  slept 
the  sleep  of  the  brave  in  the  dust  of  its  cemeteries.  Thus 


SACRED    TO   THE   MARTYRS    OF    LIBERTY.  71 

from  the  holocaust  of  war,  from  the  ashes  of  our  sires  and 
sons  arose  new-born  the  holy  love  of  country,  and  venera- 
tion for  its  Capital.  The  zeal  of  nationality,  the  passion 
of  patriotism  awoke  above  the  bodies  of  our  slain.  Na- 
tional songs,  the  inspiration  of  patriots,  soared  toward 
heaven.  National  monuments  began  to  rise  consecrated 
forever  to  the  martyrs  of  Liberty.  Never,  till  that  hour, 
did  the  Federal  city — the  city  of  George  Washington, 
the  first-born  child  of  the  Union,  born  to  live  or  to  per- 
ish with  it, — become  to  the  heart  of  the  American  peo- 
ple that  which  it  had  so  long  been  in  the  eyes  of  the 
— truly  the  CAPITAL  OF  THE  NATION. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  WASHINGTON  OF  THE  PRESENT  DAY. 

Hopes  Realized— A  Truly  National  City— Washington  in  1873— Major  L'En- 
fant's  Dream — Old  and  New — "  Modern  Improvements  " — A  City  of  Pal- 
aces—The Capital  in  All  Its  Glory— Traces  of  the  War— Flowers  on  the 
Ramparts— Under  the  Oaks  of  Arlington— Ten  Years  Ago— The  Birth 
of  a  Century — The  Reign  of  Peace — The  Capital  of  the  Future. 

AND  now !  The  citizen  of  the  "year  of  our  Lord 
1881  sees  the  dawn  of  that  perfect  day  of  which 
the  founders  of  the  Capital  so  fondly  and  fruitlessly 
dreamed.  The  old  provincial  Southern  city  is  no  more. 
From  its  foundations  has  risen  another  city,  neither 
Southern  nor  Northern,  but  national,  cosmopolitan. 

Where  the  "Slough  of  Despond"  spread  its  waxen 
mud  across  the  acres  of  the  West  End,  where  pedestri- 
ans were  "slumped,"  and  horses  "stalled,"  and  discom- 
fort and  disgust  prevailed,  we  now  see  broad  carriage 
drives,  level  as  floors,  over  which  grand  equipages  and 
pony  phaetons  glide  with  a  smoothness  that  is  a  luxury, 
and  an  ease  of  motion  which  is  rest.  Where  ravines  and 
holes  made  the  highway  dangerous,  now  the  concrete 
and  Nicholson  pavements  stretch  over  miles  on  miles  of 
inviting  road.  Where  streets  and  avenues  crossed  and 
re-crossed  their  long  vistas  of  shadeless  dust,  now  plat  on 
plat  of  restful  grass  "  park "  the  city  from  end  to  end. 
Double  rows  of  young  trees  line  these  parks  far  as  tbe 


TIME'S  CHANGES.  73 

sight  can  reach.  In  these  June  days  they  fill  the  air  with 
tender  bloom.  Gazing  far  on  through  their  green  ar- 
cades the  sight  rests  at  last  where  poor  Major  L'Enfant 
dreamed  and  planned  that  it  one  day  would, — on  the 
restful  river,  with  its  white  flecks  of  sails,  upon  distant 
meadows  and  the  Virginia  hills.  Old  Washington  was 
full  of  small  Saharas.  Where  the  great  avenues  in- 
tersected acres  of  white  sand  were  caught  up  and  carried 
through  the  air  by  counter  winds.  It  blistered  at  white 
heat  beneath  your  feet,  it  flickered  like  a  fiery  veil  before 
your  eyes,  it  penetrated  your  lungs  and  begrimed  your 
clothes.  Now  where  streets  and  avenues  cross,  emerald 
"  circles  "  with  central  fountains,  pervading  the  air  with 
cooling  spray,  with  belts  of  flowers  and  troops  of  children, 
and  restful  seats  for  the  old  or  the  weary  take  the  place 
of  the  old  Saharas.  In  every  direction  tiny  parks  are 
blooming  with  verdurous  life.  Concrete  walks  have 
taken  the  place  of  their  old  gravel-stone  paths.  Seats — 
thanks  to  General  Babcock — everywhere  invite  to  sit 
down  and  rest  beneath  trees  which  every  summer  cast  a 
deeper  and  more  protecting  shadow.  The  green  pools 
which  used  to  distill  malaria  beneath  your  windows  are 
now  all  sucked  into  the  great  sewers,  planted  at  last  in 
the  foundations  of  the  city.  The  entire  city  has  been 
drained.  Every  street  has  been  newly  graded.  The 
Tiber,  inglorious  stream,  arched  and  covered  forever 
from  sight,  creeps  in  darkness  to  its  final  gulf  in  the 
river.  The  canal,  drained  and  filled  up,  no  longer 
breeds  pestilence.  Pennsylvania  avenue  has  outlived  its 
mud  and  its  poplars,  to  be  all  and  more  than  Jefferson 
dreamed  it  would  be, — the  most  magnificent  street  on 
the  continent.  Its  lining  palaces  are  not  yet  built,  but 


74  TEN    YEAES    IN   WASHINGTON. 

more  than  one  superb  building  like  that  of  the  Daily 
National  Republican  soars  high  above  the  lowly  shops  of 
the  past,  a  forerunner  of  the  architectural  splendor  of  the 
buildings  of  the  future.  Cars  running  every  five  min- 
utes have  taken  the  place  of  the  solitary  stage,  plodding 
its  slow  way  between  Georgetown  and  the  Capital.  Cap- 
itol Hill,  which  had  been  retrograding  for  more  than 
forty  years,  has  taken  on  the  look  of  a  suddenly  growing 
city  Its  dusty  ways  and  empty  spaces  are  beginning  to 
fill  with  handsome  blocks  of  metropolitan  houses.  Even 
the  old  Capital  prison  is  transformed  into  a  handsome 
and  fashionable  block  of  private  dwellings.  The  im- 
provements at  the  West  End  are  more  striking.  Solid 
blocks  of  city  houses  are  rising  in  every  direction,  taking 
the  place  of  the  little,  old,  isolated  house  of  the  past,  with 
its  stiff  porch,  high  steps,  and  open  basement  doorway. 
Vermont,  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  avenues  are  al- 
ready lined  with  splendid  mansions,  the  permanent  winter 
homes  of  Senators  and  other  high  official  and  military 
officers.  The  French,  Spanish,  English  and  other  foreign 
governments  have  bought  on  and  near  these  avenues  for 
the  purpose  of  building  on  them  handsome  houses  for 
their  separate  legations.  The  grounds  of  the  Executive 
Mansion  are  being  enlarged,  extending  to  the  Potomac 
with  a  carriage  drive  encircling,  running  along  the  shore 
of  the  river,  extending  through  the  Agricultural  Smith- 
sonian and  Botanical  garden  grounds,  thus  fulfilling  the 
original  intent  of  connecting  the  White  House  with  the 
Capitol  by  a  splendid  drive.  The  same  transformation  is 
going  on  in  the  Capitol  grounds.  Blocks  of  old  houses 
have  been  torn  down  and  demolished,  to  make  room  for 
a  park  fit  to  encircle  the  Capitol,  which  can  never  be 


GRAND   PULIC   BUILDINGS.  75 

complete  till  it  takes  in  all  the  rolling  slopes  which  lie 
between  it  and  the  Potomac.  No  scaffolding  and  pulleys 
now  deface  the  snowy  surfaces  of  the  Capitol.  Unim- 
peded the  dome  soars  into  mid-air,  till  the  goddess  of 
liberty  on  its  top  seems  caught  into  the  embrace  of  the 
clouds.  The  beautiful  Treasury  building  is  completed, 
and  a  block  further  on,  the  click  of  ceaseless  hammers 
and  the  rising  buttresses  of  solid  stone  tell  of  the  new 
war  and  navy  departments  which  are  swiftly  growing 
beside  the  historic  walls  of  the  old.  Even  the  Wash- 
ington monument  has  been  taken  into  hand  by  Gen- 
eral Babcock,  to  whom  personally  the  Capital  owes  so 
much,  and  by  a  fresh  appeal  to  the  States  he  hopes  to 
re-arouse  their  patriotism  and  insure  its  grand  comple- 
tion. Flowers  blossom  on  the  ramparts  of  the  old  forts, 
so  alert  with  warlike  life  ten  years  ago.  The  army 
roads,  so  deeply  grooved  then,  are  grass-grown  now. 
The  long  shed-hospitals  have  vanished,  and  stately  dwell- 
ings stand  on  their  already  forgotten  sites.  The  "  boys  " 
who  languished  in  their  wards,  the  boys  who  marched 
these  streets,  who  guarded  this  city,  how  many  of  them 
lie  on  yonder  hill-top  under  the  oaks  of  Arlington,  and 
amid  the  roses  of  the  Soldier's  Home.  Peace,  prosperity 
and  luxury  have  taken  the  place  of  war,  of  knightly  days 
and  of  heroic  men. 

The  mills  of  time  grind  slowly.  What  a  tiny  stroke 
in  its  cycles  is  a  single  century.  One  hundred  years ! 
The  year  nineteen  hundred !  Then  if  the  father  of  his 
country  can  look  down  from  any  star  upon  the  city  of 
his  love  he  will  behold  in  the  new  Washington  that 
which  even  he  did  not  foresee  in  his  earthly  life — one 
of  the  most  magnificent  cities  of  the  whole  earth. 


CHAPTER  VH. 

WHAT  MADE  NEW  WASHINGTON. 

Municipal  Changes — Necessity  of  Reform — Committee  of  One  Hundred 
Constituted — Mr.  M.  G.  Emery  Appointed  Mayor — The  "  Organic  Act" 
Passed — Contest  for  the  Governorship  of  Columbia  District — Mr.  Henry 
D.  Cooke  Appointed— Board  of  Public  Works  Constituted — Great  Im- 
provements Made — Opposition — The  Board  and  its  Work — Sketch 
of  Alexander  R.  Shepherd — His  Efforts  During  the  War— Patriotic 
Example, 

A  SKETCH  of  the  territorial  government  which  now 
-£jL  rules  the  District  of  Columbia,  will  account  for  new 
Washington  and  the  many  beneficent  changes  which  have 
renovated  the  city. 

As  early  as  the  winter  of  1868,  efforts  were  made  to  se- 
cure a  united  government  for  the  entire  District,  instead 
of  the  triple  affair  then  in  operation,  viz. :  municipal  cor- 
porations for  Washington  and  Georgetown,  and  the  Levy 
court  for  the  County.  Under  that  regime  no  system  of 
general  improvements  could  be  established.  The  District 
was  under  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  Congress  and  was 
obliged  to  beg  and  plead  with  that  body  for  permission  to 
begin  and  for  appropriations  to  pay  for  each  improvement, 
as  its  increasing  business  and  population  imperatively  de- 
manded. Again,  the  extension  of  the  right  of  suffrage 
and  the  consequent  increase  of  the  number  of  ignorant 
voters,  made  it  apparent  that  something  must  be  done  to 
prevent  the  control  of  the  cities  falling  into  the  power  of 


A  LITTLE   BILL."  77 

a  class  of  petty  ward  politicians  of  the  very  worst  order, 
who  had  sprung  up  just  after  the  war,  and  who  had  already 
caused  considerable  uneasiness  in  the  minds  of  the  solid 
and  thinking  portion  of  the  community,  by  the  rapid  man- 
ner in  which  they  had  managed  to  increase  the  public  debt 
without  showing  any  corresponding  public  benefits. 

It  was  at  first  proposed  to  have  the  District  governed 
by  commissioners  to  be  appointed  by  the  President,  and 
I  believe  bills  to  that  effect  were  introduced  into  Con- 
gress by  Senator  Hamlin,  and  Mr.  Morril^  of  Maine,  but 
were  defeated.  Of  course  the  proposed  change  was  very 
unpopular,  and  the  Washington  Common  Council  passed 
a  series  of  resolutions  protesting  against  any  interference 
with  the  government  then  existing.  The  extravagance 
and  venality  of  the  administration  of  1868-9,  however, 
awakened  the  sober  and  thoughtful  minded  citizens  to 
the  absolute  necessity  of  a  radical  and  vigorous  reform, 
and  during  the  winter  of  1869-70  a  committee  of  one 
hundred  was  constituted,  to  whom  was  given  the  ta'sk 
of  perfecting  a  bill  granting  a  territorial  government  to 
the  District,  and  of  the  urging  of  its  passage  by  Con- 
gress. This  bill  failed  to  pass  that  session,  and  there 
next  came  a  bitter  political  contest,  resulting  in  the 
election  of  Hon.  M.  G.  Emery  as  Mayor  of  Washington. 

The  evils  which  it  was  supposed  Mr.  Emery  would 
correct,  did  not  seem  to  lessen  during  his  administration, 
and  in  the  following  winter  the  project  of  a  new  govern- 
ment was  revived  and  urged  with  so  much  vigor  that 
Congress,  on  the  21st  of  January,  1871,  passed  what  is 
now  known  as  the  "Organic  Act,"  establishing  and  de- 
fining, the  powers  of  the  territorial  government  of  the 
District  of  Columbia.  Immediately  following  the  pas- 


78  TEN   TEAES   IN   WASHINGTON. 

sage  of  this  act  there  appeared  four  prominent  candi- 
dates for  the  governorship  of  the  young  territory,  viz: 
Messrs.  M.  G.  Emery,  Sayles  J.  Bowen,  Jas.  A.  Magruder, 
and  Alex.  R.  Shepherd.  Messrs.  Emery  and  Bowen  soon 
subsided,  and  the  contest  narrowed  to  between  Messrs. 
Shepherd  and  Magruder. 

It  was  unmistakably  the  popular  desire  that  the  ap- 
pointment should  be  given  to  Mr.  Shepherd.  He  had 
been  more  prominent  than  any  other  individual  named 
in  securing  the  change  effected ;  the  nucleus  of  the  Or- 
ganic Act  is  said  to  have  been  drafted  by  him,  and  the  en- 
ergy and  sagacity  he  had  shown  in  his  public  life  pointed 
him  out  as  peculiarly  fit  for  the  position.  Besides,  he 
had  gained  the  popular  confidence  by  his  unvarying  in- 
tegrity and  fearless  independence,  and  by  a  quality  too 
rarely  observed  in  a  public  man — positive  manliness. 
Colonel  Magruder,  the  Georgetown  candidate,  was  quite 
popular  in  that  city,  where  he  had  for  a  number  of  years 
been  the  collector  of  customs.  Though  at  that  time  he 
was  not  extensively  known  in  Washington,  those  who 
were  his  friends  were  ardent  and  untiring  in  their  support. 
It  soon  became  evident  that  the  appointment  of  either 
of  these  gentlemen  would  cause  extreme  dissatisfaction 
to  the  supporters  of  his  competitors,  and  as  it  was  espe- 
cially desirable  that  the  new  government  should  com- 
mence its  operations  with  perfect  good  feeling  pervading 
all  the  different  parties,  a  governor  was  sought  who 
should  harmonize  all  differences,  and  Henry  D.  Cooke, 
of  the  firm  of  Jay  Cooke  &  Co.,  a  gentleman  of  unim- 
peachable integrity,  who  had  kept  aloof  from  all  factions 
and  who,  in  fact,  was  one  of  Mr.  Shepherd's  warmest 
supporters,  was  at  length  selected. 


A   WELL-SEASONED    "BOARD."  79 

Then  came  the  appointment  of  that  body  of  men, 
against  whom  so  much  abuse  has  been  hurled,  but  to 
whose  energies  the  existence  of  the  new  Washington 
I  have  portrayed  is  wholly  attributable,  viz :  the  Board 
of  Public  Works.  This  Board  was  at  first  composed  of 
Messrs.  A.  R.  Shepherd,  A.  B.  Mullett,  S.  P.  Brown,  and 
James  A.  Magruder,  with  the  Governor  as  president  ex- 
officio.  Since  then  Messrs.  Mullett  and  Brown  have  re- 
signed, and  their  places  have  been  filled  by  Messrs.  Adolf 
Cluss,  and  Henry  A.  Willard. 

I  may  state  also  that  the  first  Secretary  of  the  District 
was  N.  P.  Chipman,  and  that  when  he  was  elected  as  the 
delegate  to  Congress,  the  position  was  given  to  E.  L. 
Stan  ton,  the  son  of  the  late  Secretary  Stanton,  by  whom 
it  is  now  filled. 

All  the  gentlemen  I  have  named  are  men  of  clear  intel- 
ligence, excellent  business  capacity,  and  positive  energy. 

The  amount  of  labor  performed  by  the  Board  of  Public 
Works  can  scarcely  be  imagined  by  one  who  has  not  lived 
right  here  in  the  District,  and  observed  the  complete  and 
almost  magical  changes  that  have  taken  place.  Embar- 
rassed at  the  very  commencement  of  their  career  by  the 
slipshod  manner  in  which  improvements  had  been 'carried 
on  under  the  old  corporations,  they  soon  encountered  a 
violent  opposition  from  many  citizens  who  should  have 
heartily  supported  their  efforts.  This  opposition  was  or- 
ganized and  persistent,  leaving  no  artifice  untried  to  hin- 
der and  check  the  efforts  of  the  Board,  seeking  injunction 
after  injunction  in  the  courts,  and  finally  appealing  to 
Congress  and  effecting  an  investigation  which  lasted  for 
four  months,  and  was  as  searching  and  minute  as  any 
ever  attempted  by  that  body,  but  which  ended  not  only 


80  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

in  the  absolute  acquittal  of  the  Board  of  every  charge 
alleged,  but  in  a  cordial  commendation  of  their  acts  by 
the  committee  which  conducted  the  inquiry. 

I  wish  to  give  this  Board  of  Public  Works  the  credit  to 
which  they  are  justly  entitled.  When  I  read  the  slanders 
that  are  cast  upon  them,  I  want  to  ask  the  authors  if  they 
would  prefer  the  dingy,  straggling,  muddy,  dusty  Wash- 
ington of  two  years  ago  to  the  bright,  compact,  clean  and 
beautiful  city  of  to-day  ? 

The  "head  and  front"  of  this  Board,  the  man  who  has 
infused  a  portion  of  his  own  enthusiasm  into  his  fellow 
members,  the  man  to  whose  comprehensive  mind  and 
untiring  energy  the  success  of  the  Board  is  almost  en- 
tirely due,  who  was  made'  vice-president  and  executive 
officer  by  his  colleagues  because  they  recognized  his 
great  abilities,  and  were  content  to  follow  where  he 
should  lead,  is  Alexander  R.  Shepherd  of  Washington. 

He  is  d  native  of  Washington,  was  born  in  1835,  and 
is  consequently  now  but  thirty-eight  years  old.  His 
father  died  when  he  was  quite  a  boy,  and  at  the  early 
age  of  ten  years  he  began  the  rough  struggle  of  life. 
He  at  first  started  to  learn  the  carpenter's  trade,  but 
finding  that  unsuitable  to  his  tastes  he  entered  a  store, 
as  errand  boy.  At  seventeen  he  was  taken  into  the 
plumbing  establishment  of  Mr.  J.  W.  Thompson,  as  clerk. 
By  industry,  fidelity  and  ability,  he  at  length  attained 
a  partnership  in  that  house,  and  upon  Mr.  Thompson's 
retirement,  succeeded  to  the  full  control  of  the  business, 
which  under  his  skillful  management  has  so  rapidly  grown 
that  it  now  defies  competition  with  any  similar  establish- 
ment south  of  New  York. 

When  the  war  of  the  Rebellion  broke  out,  Mr.  Shep- 


STORY    OF   A    SUCCESSFUL   LIFE.  81 

herd  was  mainly  instrumental  in  forming  the  Union 
party  in  "Washington,  proving  loyal  amidst  the  bitter 
hostility  of  many  of  his  best  friends.  As  early  as  the 
15th  of  April,  1861,  he  enlisted  as  a  private  soldier,  and 
for  three  months  shouldered  his  musket  in  defense  of  the 
National  Capital.  In  the  same  year  he  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  Common  Council,  and  again  in  1862, 
when  he  was  made  president  of  that  body.  In  1867  he 
was  appointed  a  member  of  the  Levy  court,  and  in  that 
capacity  first  developed  his  ability  and  energy  as  a  pub- 
lic man.  He  was  president  of  the  Citizens'  Reform  As- 
sociation during  the  Emery  campaign,  and  was,  I  believe, 
the  prime  mover  of  Mr.  Emery's  nomination,  and  con- 
tributed by  his  efforts  largely  to  that  gentleman's  success. 
At  that  election  Mr.  Shepherd  was  chosen  to  the  Board 
of  Aldermen,  which  position  he  held  when  appointed  to 
the  Board  of  Public  Works. 

In  person  Mr.  Shepherd  is  a  tall,  noble  looking  man, 
with  a  large,  well-formed  head,  sharply-defined  features, 
massive  under  jaw  and  square  chin,  indicative  of  the 
indomitable  perseverance  and  firmness  which  are  the 
most  prominent  traits  in  his  character.  Although  a  self- 
made  man,  he  has  acquired  a  fund  of  information  which 
many  a  collegian  might  envy.  His  mind  is  thoroughly 
disciplined,  his  perceptions  keen,  his  decisions  rapid,  and 
his  language  vigorous  and  terse.  In  private  life  he  is 
universally  respected  and  esteemed.  .  His  benevolence  is 
unbounded,  and  beside  subscribing  liberally  to  every  pub- 
lic appeal,  he  performs  innumerable  acts  of  private  char- 
ity, which  few  know  save  the  grateful  recipients. 

It  was  believed  by  the  majority  of  people  that  Gov- 
ernor Cooke  would  retain  his  position  only  until  the  fu- 


82  TEN  TEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

sion  of  the  irritated  factions  was  effected,  and  that  in  the 
event  of  his  resignation  Mr.  Shepherd  would  be  ap- 
pointed his  successor.  Whether  Governor  Cooke  retires 
before  the  end  of  his  term  or  not,  it  is  the  universal  be- 
lief that  Mr.  Shepherd  will  be  the  second  governor  of 
the  District  of  Columbia. 

He  is  a  representative  man,  embodying  in  his  history 
and  character  more  emphatically,  perhaps,  than  any  other 
man,  the  new  life  of  the  new  city  of  Washington. 


CHAPTER  Yin. 

BUILDING  THE  CAPITOL. 

George  Washington's  Anxiety  about  it—  His  View  of  it  Politically—  Various 
Plans  for  the  Building  —  Jefferson  Writes  to  the  Commissioners  —  His 
Letter  to  Mr.  Carroll—  "  Poor  Hallet  "  and  His  Plan—  Wanton  De- 
struction by  the  British,  A.  D.  1814  —  Foundation  of  the  Main  Building 
Laid  —  The  Site  Chosen  by  Washington  Himself—  Imposing  Ceremonies 
at  the  Foundation  —  Dedicatory  Inscription  on  the  Silver  Plate  —  Inter- 
esting Festivities  —  The  Birth  of  a  Nation's  Capital  —  Extension  of  the 
Building  —  Daniel  Webster's  Inscription—  His  Eloquent  and  Patriotic 
Speech  —  Mistaken  Calculations  —  First  Session  of  Representatives  Sit- 
ting in  "the  Oven"  —  Old  Capital  Prison  —  Immense  Outlay  upon  the 
Wings  and  Dome  —  Compared  with  St.  Peter's  and  St.  Paul's  —  The 
Goddess  of  Liberty  —  The  Congressional  Library  —  Proposed  Altera- 
tions —  What  Ought  to  be  Done. 


EORGE  WASHINGTON  believed  the  building  of 
the  Capitol  to  be  identical  with  the  establishment 
of  a  permanent  seat  of  government.  To  the  consumma- 
tion of  this  crowning  building,  the  deepest  anxiety  and 
devotion  of  his  later  years  were  dedicated.  Next  to  de- 
termining a  final  site  for  the  city  was  the  difficulty  of 
deciding  on  a  plan  for  its  Capitol. 

Poor  human  nature  had  to  contend  awhile  over  this 
as  it  seems  to  have  to  about  almost  everything  else.  A 
Mr.  S.  Hallet  had  a  plan  :  Dr.  Thornton  had  one,  also. 
Jefferson  wrote  "to  Dr.  Stewart,  or  to  all  the  gentlemen" 
Commissioners,  January  31,  1793  : 

"  I  have,  under  consideration,  Mi;.  Hallet's  plans  for  the  Capi- 
tol, which  undoubtedly  have  a  great  deal  of  merit.  Doctor 


84  TEN   YEAES  IN   WASHINGTON. 

Thornton  has  als©  given  me  a  view  of  his.  The  grandeur,  sim- 
plicity and  beauty  of  the  exterior,  the  propriety  with  which 
the  departments  are  distributed,  and  economy  in  the  mass  of  the 
whole  structure,  will,  I  doubt  not  give  it  a  preference  in  your 
eyes  as  it  has  done  in  mine  and  those  of  several  others  whom  I 
have  consulted.  I  have,  therefore,  thought  it  better  to  give  the 
Doctor  time  to  finish  his  plan,  and  for  this  purpose  to  delay 
until  your  meeting  a  final  decision.  Some  difficulty  arises  with 
respect  to  Mr.  Hallet,  who,  you  know,  was  in  some  degree  led 
into  his  plan  by  ideas  which  we  all  expressed  to  him.  This 
ought  not  to  induce  us  to  prefer  it  to  a  better ;  but  while  he  is 
liberally  rewarded  for  the  time  and  labor  he  has  expended  on  it, 
his  feelings  should  be  saved  and  soothed  as  much  as  possible.  I 
leave  it  to  yourselves  how  best  to  prepare  him  for  the  possibil- 
ity that  the  Doctor's  plans  may  be  preferred  to  his." 

February  1, 1793,  Jefferson  writes  from  Philadelphia  to 
Mr.  Carroll— 

"  DEAR  SIB  : — Doctor  Thornton's  plan  for  a  Capitol  has  been 
produced  and  has  so  captivated  the  eyes  and  judgments  of  all 
as  to  leave  no  doubt  you  will  prefer  it  when  it  shall  be  exhibit- 
ed to  you ;  as  no  doubt  exists  here  of  its  preference  over  all 
which  have  been  produced,  and  among  its  admirers  no  one  is 
more  decided  than  him,  whose  decision  is  most  important.  It 
is  simple,  noble,  beautiful,  excellently  distributed  and  moderate 
in  size.  A  just  respect  for  the  right  of  approbation  in  the  Com- 
missioners will  prevent  any  formal  decision  in  the  President,  till 
the  plan  shall  be  laid  before  you  and  approved  by  you.  In  the 
meantime  the  interval  of  apparent  doubt  may  be  improved  for 
settling  the  mind  of  poor  Hallet  whose  merits  and  distresses  in- 
terests every  one  for  his  tranquillity  and  pecuniary  relief." 

These  quotations  are  chiefly  interesting  in  connection 
with  the  fact  that  poor,  pushed-to-the-wall  Hallet  re- 
bounded afterwards,  notwithstanding  Jefferson's  enthu- 


"POOR  HALLET"  WINS  THE  DAY.  85 

siasm  over  Hiornton's  plan,  and  Washington's  declaration 
that  it  combined  "grandeur,  simplicity  and  convenience." 
The  architects  preferred  the  design  of  Hallet  and  in  build- 
ing retained  but  two  or  three  of  the  features  of  Doctor 
Thornton's  plan. 

After  the  burning  of  the  Capitol  wings  by  the  British, 
August,  1814,  Mr.  B.  H.  Latrobe,  of  Maryland,  began 
to  rebuild  the  Capitol  on  Stephen  Hallet's  plan.  The 
foundations  of  the  main  building  were  laid  March  24, 
1818,  under  the  superintendence  of  Charles  Bulfinch,  and 
the  original  design  was  completed  in  1825.  The  site  of 
the  Capitol  was  chosen  by  George  Washington,  on  a  hill 
ninety  feet  above  tide-water,  commanding  a  view  of  the 
great  plateau  below,  the  circling  rivers,  and  girdling 
hills — a  hill  in  1663  named  "  Room,"  later  Rome,  and 
owned  by  a  gentleman  named  "  Pope." 

September  18,  1793,  the  south-east  corner  of  the  Capi- 
tol was  laid  by  Washington  with  imposing  ceremonies. 
A  copy  of  The  Maryland  Gazette,  published  in  Annapolis, 
September  26,  1793,  gives  a  minute  account  of  the  grand 
Masonic  ceremonial,  which  attended  the  laying  of  that 
august  stone.  It  tells  us  that  "  there  appeared  on  the 
southern  bank  of  the  river  Potomac  one  of  the  finest  com- 
panies of  artillery  that  hath  been  lately  seen  parading  to 
receive  the  President  of  the  U.  S."  Also,  that  the  Com- 
missioners delivered  to  the  President,  who  deposited  in 
the  stone  a  silver  plate  with  the  following  inscription : 

"  This  south-east  corner  of  the  Capitol  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  in  the  city  of  Washington,  was  laid  on  the  18th  day 
of  September,  1792,  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  American  Inde- 
pendence ;  in  the  first  year,  second  term  of  the  Presidency  of 
George  Washington,  whose  virtues  in  the  civil  administration 


86  TEN   TEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

of  his  country  have  been  as  conspicuous  and  beneficial,  as  his 
military  valor  and  prudence  have  been  useful,  in  establishing 
her  liberties,  and  in  the  year  of  Masonry,  5793,  by  the  President 
of  the  United  States,  in  concert  with  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Mary- 
land, several  lodges  under  its  jurisdiction  and  Lodge  No.  22  from 
Alexandria,  Virginia. 

[Signed]  THOMAS  JOHNSON,  }  _ 

DAVID  STEWAET,       Oom™s™n- 
DANIEL  CAEEOLL,  ) 

The  Gazette  continues : — 

"  The  whole  company  retired  to  an  extensive  booth,  where 
an  ox  of  500  Ibs.  weight  was  barbecued,  of  which  the  company 
generally  partook  with  ^every  abundance  of  other  recreation. 
The  festival  concluded  with  fifteen  successive  volleys  from  the 
artillery,  whose  military  discipline  and  manoeuvres  merit  every 
commendation." 

*'  Before  dark  the  whole  company  departed  with  joyful  hopes 
of  the  production  of  their  labors." 

Fifty-eight  years  later,  near  this  spot  another  corner- 
stone was  deposited  bearing  the  following  inscription  in 
the  writing  of  Daniel  Webster : — 

"  On  the  morning  of  the  first  day  of  the  seventy-sixth  year  of 
the  Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America,  in  the  city 
of  Washington,  being  the  fourth  day  of  July,  eighteen  hundred 
and  fifty-one,  this  stone  designed  as  the  corner-stone  of  the  ex- 
tension of  the  Capitol,  according  to  a  plan  approved  by  the 
President  in  pursuance  of  an  act  of  Congress  was  laid  by 

MILLARD  FILMORE, 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

Assisted  by  the  Grand  Master  of  the  Masonic  Lodges,  in  the 
presence  of  many  Members  of  Congress,  of  officers  of  the  Execu- 


FIFTY   TEARS    LATER.  87 

tive  and  Judiciary  departments,  National,  State  and  Districts,  of 
officers  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  the  Corporate  authorities  of  this 
and  neighboring  cities,  many  associations,  civil  and  military  and 
Masonic,  officers  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  and  National 
Institute,  professors  of  colleges  and  teachers  of  schools  of  the 
Districts,  with  their  students  and  pupils,  and  a  vast  concourse 
of  people  from  places  near  and  remote  including  a  few  surviv- 
ing gentlemen  who  witnessed  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone  of 
the  Capitol  by  President  Washington,  on  the  18th  day  of  Sep- 
tember, 1793.  If,  therefore,  it  shall  hereafter  be  the  will  of  God 
that  this  structure  shall  fall  from  its  base,  that  its  foundation  be 
upturned,  and  this  deposit  brought  to  the  eyes  of  men ;  be  it 
then  known  that  on  this  day  the  Union  of  the  United  States  of 
America  stands  firm,  that  their  constitution  still  exists  unim- 
paired, and  with  all  its  original  usefulness  and  glory  growing 
every  day  stronger  and  stronger  in  the  affections  of  the  great 
body  of  the  American  people,  and  attracting  more  and  more  the 
admiration  of  the  world.  And  all  here  assembled,  whether  be- 
longing to  public  life  or  to  private  life,  with  hearts  devoutly 
thankful  to  Almighty  God  for  the  preservation  of  the  liberty 
and  happiness  of  the  country,  unite  in  sincere  and  fervent 
prayer,  that  this  deposit,  and  the  walls  and  arches,  the  domes 
and  towers,  the  columns  and  entablatures,  now  to  be  erected 
over  it  may  endure  forever. 

"  God  Save  the  United  States  of  America. 

DANIEL  WEBSTER, 
Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States" 

In  the  speech  made  by  Mr.  Webster  on  this  occasion 
he  uttered  the  following  words  : — 

"  Fellow  citizens,  what  contemplations  are  awakened  in  our 
minds  as  we  assemble  to  re-enact  a  scene  like  that  performed 
by  Washington !  Methinks  I  see  his  venerable  form  now  be- 
fore me  as  presented  in  the  glorious  statue  by  Houdon,  now 
in  the  Capitol  of  Virginia We  perceive  that  mighty 


88  TEN   TEAES    IN   WASHINGTON. 

thoughts  mingled  with  fears  as  well  as  with  hopes,  are  strug- 
gling with  him.  He  heads  a  short  procession  over  these  then 
naked  fields ;  he  crosses  yonder  stream  on  a  fallen  tree  ;  he  as- 
cends on  the  top  of  this  eminence,  whose  original  oaks  of  the 
forest  stand  as  thick  around  him  as  if  the  spot  had  been  devoted 
to  Druidical  worship  and  here  he  performs  the  appointed  duty  of 
the  day." 

Fifty-eight  years  stretched  between  this  scene  and  the 
last  and  already  the  mutterings  of  civil  revolution  stirred 
in  the  air.  Could  Webster  have  foreseen  that  the  mar- 
ble walls  of  the  Capitol  whose  corner-stone  he  then  laid 
would  rise  amid  the  thunder  of  cannon  aimed  to  destroy 
it  and  the  great  Union  of  States  which  it  crowned,  to 
what  anguish  of  eloquence  would  his  words  have  risen ! 

The  Capitol  fronting  the  east  was  set  by  an  astronomi- 
cal observation  of  Andrew  Ellicott.  Its  founders  were  as 
much  mistaken  in  the  direction  which  the  future  city 
would  take  as  they  were  in  the  future  commerce  of  the 
Potomac.  They  expected  that  a  metropolis  would  spring- 
up  on  Capitol  Hill,  spreading  on  to  the  Navy  Yard  and 
Potomac.  Land-owners  made  this  impossible  by  the  price 
they  set  upon  their  city  lots.  The  metropolis  defied  them 
— went  down  into  the  valley  and  grew  up  behind  the 
Capitol. 

The  north  wing  of  the  central  Capitol  was  made  ready 
for  the  first  sitting  of  Congress  in  Washington,  November 
17,  1800.  By  that  time  the  walls  of  the  south  wing  had 
risen  twenty  feet  and  were  covered  over  for  the  tempo- 
rary use  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  It  sat  in  this 
room  named  "the  oven"  from  1802,  until  1804.  At  that 
time  the  transient  roof  was  removed  and  the  wing  com- 
pleted under  the  superintendence  of  B.  H.  Latrobe  until 


REMINISCENCE    OF   THE    REBELLION.  89 

its  completion.  The  House  occupied  the  room  of  the  Li- 
brary of  Congress.  The  south  wing  was  finished  in  1811. 

The  original  Capitol  was  built  of  sandstone  taken  from 
an  island  in  Acquia  Creek,  Virginia.  The  island  was  pur- 
chased by  the  government  in  1791  for  $6,000  for  the  use 
of  the  quarry.  The  interior  of  both  wings  was  destroyed 
by  fire  when  the  British  took  the  city  in  1814,  the  outer 
walls  remaining  uninjured.  Latrobe,  who  had  resigned 
in  1813,  was  re-appointed  after  the  fire  to  reconstruct  the 
Capitol.  The  following  December,  Congress  passed  an 
act  leasing  a  building  on  the  east  side  of  the  Capitol,  the 
building  afterwards  so  famous  as  "  Old  Capitol  Prison," 
and  which  was  crowded  with  prisoners  during  the  war  of 
the  Rebellion.  Congress  held  its  sessions  in  this  building 
till  the  rebuilt  Capitol  was  ready  for  occupation. 

By  act  of  Congress,  September  30,  1850,  provision 
was  made  for  the  grand  extension  wings  of  the  Capitol, 
to  be  built  on  such  a  plan  as  might  be  approved  by  the 
President.  The  plan  of  Thomas  C.  Walter  was  accepted 
by  President  Fillmore,  June  10,  1851,  and  he  was  ap- 
pointed architect  of  the  Capitol  to  carry  his  plan  into 
execution.  Walter  was  the  architect  of  Girard  College, 
Philadelphia,  and  to  him  we  owe  the  magnificent  marble 
wings  and  iron  dome  of  the  Capitol.  The  dome  cost  one 
million  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  wings  cost 
six  millions  five  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  height 
of  the  interior  of  the  dome  of  the  Capitol  from  the  floor 
of  the  rotunda  is  180  feet  and  3  inches.  The  height  of 
the  exterior  from  the  floor  of  the  basement  story  to  the 
top  of  the  crowning  statue  is  287  feet  and  5  inches.  The 
interior  diameter  is  97  feet.  The  exterior  diameter  of 
the  drum  is  108  feet.  The  greatest  exterior  diameter  is 


90  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

135  feet,  5  inches.  The  Capitol  is  751  feet,  4  inches  long, 
31  feet  longer  than  St.  Peter's  in  Rome,  and  175  feet  longer 
than  St.  Paul's  in  London.  The  height  of  the  interior  of 
the  dome  of  St.  Peter's  is  330  feet.  The  height  of  the 
interior  of  the  dome  of  St.  Paul's  is  215  feet.  The 
height  of  the  exterior  of  St.  Peter's  to  the  top  of  lantern 
is  432  feet.  The  height  of  the  exterior  of  the  dome  of 
St.  Paul's  is  215  feet. 

The  ground  actually  covered  by  the  Capitol  is  153,112 
square  feet  or  652  square  feet  more  than  3  1-2  acres.  Of 
these  the  old  building  covered  61,201  square  feet  and  the 
new  wings  with  connecting  corridors,  91,311  square  feet. 

The  dome  of  the  Capitol  is  the  highest  structure  in 
America.  It  is  one  hundred  and  eight  feet  higher  than 
Washington  Monument  in  Baltimore;  sixty-eight  feet 
higher  than  Bunker  Hill  Monument  and  twenty-three 
feet  higher  than  the  steeple  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York. 
Mr.  Walter  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  Edward  Clarke,  the 
present  architect  of  the  Capitol.  Thus  far  Mr.  Clarke's 
work  has  consisted  chiefly  in  finishing  and  harmonizing 
the  work  of  his  varied  and  sometimes  conflicting  prede- 
cessors. Under  his  supervision  the  dome  has  been  com- 
pleted, and  Thomas  Crawford's  grand  goddess  of  liberty, 
sixteen  and  one-half  feet  high,  has  ascended  to  its  summit 
while  he  has  wrought  out  in  the  interior  the  most  harmo- 
nious room  of  the  Capitol — the  Congressional  Library. 

The  greatest  work  which  he  still  desires  to  do  is  to  put 
the  present  front  on  the  rear  of  the  Capitol  facing  the 
city,  and  to  draw  forth  the  old  freestone  fronts  and  re- 
build it  with  marble,  making  a  grand  central  portico  par- 
allel with  the  magnificent  marble  wings  of  the  Senate  and 
House  extension.  To  rebuild  the  central  front  will  cost 


ANCIENT   MYTHS    AND    MODERN   REALITIES.  91 

two  millions  of  dollars.  The  face  of  the  Capitol  will 
never  be  worthy  of  itself  till  this  is  accomplished.  The 
grand  outward  defect  of  the  Capitol  is  the  slightness  and 
insignificance  of  the  central  portico  compared  with  the 
superlative  Corinthian  fronts  of  the  wings.  Between 
their  outreaching  marble  steps,  beside  their  majestic  mon- 
oliths the  central  columns  shrink  to  feebleness  and  give 
the  impression  that  the  great  dome  is  sinking  down  upon 
them  to  crush  them  out  of  sight.  There  is  something 
soaring  in  the  proportions  of  the  dome.  Its  summit 
seems  to  spring  into  the  empyrean.  Its  proud  goddess 
poised  in  mid-air,  caught  in  their  swift  embrace,  seems  to 
sail  with  the  fleeting  clouds.  Nevertheless  its  tremen- 
dous base  set  upon  that  squatting  roof  threatens  it  with 
perpetual  annihilation. 

From  the  very  beginning  the  Capitol  has  suffered  as  a 
National  Building  from  the  conflicting  and  foreign  tastes 
of  its  decorators.  Literally  begun  in  the  woods  by  a  na- 
tion in  its  infancy,  it  not  only  borrowed  its  face  from  the 
buildings  of  antiquity,  but  it  was  built  by  men,  strangers  in 
thought  and  spirit  to  the  genius  of  a  new  Republic,  and 
the  unwrought  and  unimbodied  poetry  of  its  virgin  soil. 
Its  earlier  decorators,  all  Italians,  overlaid  its  walls  with 
their  florid  colors  and  foreign  symbols ;  within  the  Ameri- 
can Capitol,  they  have  set  the  Loggia  of  Raphael,  the 
voluptuous  ante-rooms  of  Pompeii,  and  the  Baths  of  Titus. 
The  American  plants,  birds  and  animals,  representing 
prodigal  nature  at  home,  though  exquisitely  painted  are 
buried  in  twilight  passages,  while  mythological  bar-maids, 
misnamed  goddesses,  dance  in  the  most  conspicuous  and 
preposterous  places.  The  Capitol  has  already  survived 
this  era  of  false  decorative  art. 


92  TEN   YEAES   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Congress  in  1859  authorized  a  Commission  of  distin- 
guished American  artists,  comprising  Messrs.  Brown, 
Lumsden  and  Kensett,  to  study  the  decorations  of  the 
Capitol  and  report  upon  their  abuses.  Their  suggestions 
are  beginning  to  be  followed,  and  yet  so  carelessly,  that  af- 
ter the  lapse  of  fourteen  years  they  need  reiteration.  The 
Artist  Committee  recommended  an  Art  Commission,  com- 
posed of  those  designated  by  the  united  voice  of  America. 
Artists  as  competent  to  the  office  who  shall  be  the  chan- 
nels for  the  distribution  of  all  appropriations  to  be  made 
by  Congress  for  art  purposes,  and  who  shall  secure  to 
artists  an  intelligent  and  unbiased  adjudication  upon  the 
designs  they  may  present  for  the  embellishment  of  the  na- 
tional buildings.  When  one  remembers  some  of  the  Con- 
gressional Committees  who  have  decided  on  decorations 
for  the  Capitol  even  within  the  last  ten  years,  it  is  enough 
to  make  one  cry  aloud  for  a  Commission  designated  by 
artists,  whose  art-culture  shall  at  least  be  sufficient  to 
tell  a  decent  picture  from  a  daub,  a  noble  statue  from  a 
pretense  and  a  sham. 

In  conclusion  the  Commission  of  Artists  said : — 

"  The  erection  of  a  great  National  Capitol  seldom  occurs  but 
once  in  the  life  of  a  nation.  The  opportunity  such  an  event 
affords  is  an  important  one  for  the  expression  of  patriotic  ele- 
vation, and  the  perpetuation,  through  the  arts  of  painting  and 
sculpture,  of  that  which  is  high  and  noble  and  held  in  reverence 
by  the  people ;  and  it  becomes  them  as  patriots  to  see  to  it  that 
no  taint  of  falsity  is  suffered  to  be  transmitted  to  the  future  up- 
on the  escutcheon  of  our  national  honor  in  its  artistic  record. 
A  theme  so  noble  and  worthy  should  interest  the  heart  of  the 
whole  country,  and  whether  patriot,  statesman  or  artist,  one  im- 
pulse should  govern  the  whole  in  dedicating  these  buildings  and 
grounds  to  the  national  honor." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

INSIDE  THE  CAPITOL. 

A  Visit  to  the  Capitol— The  Lower  Hall— Its  Cool  Tranquillity— Artistic 
Treasures— The  President's  and  Vice-President's  Rooms— The  Marble 
Room — The  Senate  Chamber — "Men  I  have  Known" — Hamlin — Foote — 
Foster— Wade— Colfax— Wilson— The  Rotunda— Great  Historical  Paint- 
ings—The Old  Hall  of  Representatives— The  New  Hall— The  Speaker's 
Room— Native  Art— "The  Star  of  Empire  "—A  National  Picture. 

COME  with  me.  This  is  your  Capitol.  It  is  like 
passing  from  one  world  into  another,  to  leave  be- 
hind the  bright  June  day  for  the  cool,  dim  halls  of  the 
lower  Capitol.  No  matter  how  fiercely  the  sun  burns  in 
the  heavens,  his  fire  never  penetrates  the  twilight  of  this 
grand  hall,  whose  eight  hundred  feet  measure  the  length 
of  the  Capitol  from  end  to  end. 

Here,  in  Egyptian  Colonnades,  rise  the  mighty  shafts 
of  stone  which  bear  upon  their  tops  the  mightier  mass 
of  marble,  and  which  seem  strong  enough  to  support  the 
world.  In  the  summer  solstice  they  cast  long,  cool 
shadows,  full  of  repose  and  silence.  The  gas-lights  flick- 
ering on  the  walls,  send  long  golden  rays  through  the 
dimness  to  light  us  on.  We  have  struck  below  the  jar 
and  tumult  of  life.  The  struggles  of  a  nation  may  be 
going  on  above  our  heads,  yet  so  vast  and  visionary  are 
these  vistas  opening  before  us,  so  deep  the  calm  which 
surrounds  us,  we  seem  far  away  from  the  world  that  we 


94  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

have  left,  in  this  new  world  which  we  have  found.  Every 
time  I  descend  into  these  lower  regions  I  get  lost.  In 
wandering  on  to  find  our  way  out,  we  are  sure  to  make 
numerous  discoveries  of  unimagined  beauty.  Here  are 
doors  after  doors  in  almost  innumerable  succession,  open- 
ing into  departments  of  commerce,  agriculture,  etc.,  whose 
every  panel  holds  exquisite  gems  of  illustrative  painting. 
Birds,  flowers,  fruits,  landscapes,  in  rarest  fresco  and  color, 
here  reveal  themselves  to  us  through  the  dim  light. 

It  would  take  months  to  study  and  to  learn  these  pic- 
tures which  artists  have  taken  years  to  paint.  They 
make  a  department  of  art  in  themselves,  yet  thousands 
who  think  that  they  know  the  Capitol  well  are  not  aware 
of  their  existence.  At  the  East  Senate  entrance,  look  at 
these  polished  pillars  of  Tennessee  marble,  their  chocolate 
surface  all  flecked  with  white,  surrounding  a  staircase  meet 
for  kings.  They  are  my  delight.  Look  at  these  foliated 
capitals,  flowering  in  leaves  of  acanthus  and  tobacco. 
Look  up  to  this  ceiling  of  stained  glass,  its  royal  roses 
opening  wide  their  crimson  hearts  above  you ;  these  too 
are  my  delight.  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  can  sneer 
at  the  Capitol.  Its  faults,  like  the  faults  of  a  friend  are 
sacred.  I  know  them,  but  wish  to  name  them  not,  save 
to  the  one  who  only  can  remedy.  It  bears  blots  upon 
its  fair  face,  but  these  can  be  washed  away.  It  wears 
ornaments  vulgar  and  vain,  these  can  be  stripped  off 
and  thrown  out.  Below  them,  beyond  them  all,  abides 
the  Capitol.  The  surface  blemish  vexes,  the  pretentious 
splendor  offends.  These  are  not  the  Capitol.  We  look 
deeper,  we  look  higher,  to  find  beauty,  to  see  sublimity, 
to  see  the  Capitol,  august  and  imperishable  ! 

The  four  marble  staircases  leading  to  the  Senate  Cham- 


THE  MARBLE  BOOM. 
INSIDE  THE  CAPITOL.— WASHINGTON. 


THE  BEAUTIES  OF  THE  MARBLE  ROOM.       95 

ber  and  Hall  of  Representatives,  in  themselves  alone  em- 
body enough  of  grace  and  magnificence  to  save  the  Capi- 
tol from  cynical  criticism.  "We  slip  through  the  Senate 
corridor,  you  and  I,  to  the  President's  and  Vice-President's 
rooms.  Their  furniture  is  sumptuous,  their  decoration  op- 
pressive. Gilding,  frescoes,  arabesques,  glitter  and  glow 
above  and  around.  There  is  not  one  quiet  hue  on  which 
the  tired  sight  may  rest.  Gazing,  I  feel  an  indescrib- 
able desire  .to  pluck  a  few  of  Signer  Brumidi's  red  leg- 
ged babies  and  pug-nosed  cupids  from  their  precarious 
perches  on  the  lofty  ceilings,  to  commit  them  to  nurses  or 
to  anybody  who  will  smooth  out  their  rumpled  little  legs 
and  make  them  look  comfortable. 

We  are  Americans,  and  need  repose ;  let  us,  therefore, 
pass  to  the  Marble  Room,  which  alone,  of  all  the  rooms 
of  the  Capitol,  suggests  it — 

"  The  end  of  all,  the  poppied  sleep." 

Its  atmosphere  is  soft,  serene,  and  silent.  Its  ceiling  is  of 
white  marble,  deeply  paneled,  supported  by  fluted  pillars 
of  polished  Italian  marble.  Its  walls  are  of  the  exquisite 
*narble  of  Tennessee — a  soft  brown,  veined  with  white — 
set  with  mirrors.  One  whose  aesthetic  eyes  have  stud- 
ied the  finest  apartments  of  the  world  says  that  to  him 
the  most  chaste  and  purely  beautiful  of  all  is  the  Marble 
Room  of  the  American  Capitol.  Americans  though  we 
are,  we  have  no  time  to  rest,  albeit  we  sorely  need  it. 

It  is  not  for  you  or  me  to  linger  in  marble  rooms, 
maundering  of  art.  Molly,  rocking  her  baby  out  on  the 
Western  prairie,  wants  to  know  all  about  the  Senate  ; 
baby  is  going  to  be  a  senator  some  day.  Moses,  on  that 
little  rock-sown  farm  in  New  England,  has  his  "  chores  all 


96  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

done."  He  rests  in  the  Yankee  paradise  of  kerosene, 
butternuts,  apples,  and  cider.  Yet  to  make  his  satisfac- 
tion complete,  he  must  know  a  little  more  about  the  Capi- 
tol. Molly  and  Moses  both  expect  us  to  see  for  them 
what  they  can  not  come  to  see  for  themselves.  So  let  us 
peep  into  the  Senate.  It  can  not  boast  of  the  ampler  pro- 
portions of  the  Hall  of  Representatives.  Its  golden  walls 
and  emerald  doors  can  not  rescue  it  from  insignificance. 

The  ceiling  of  this  chamber  is  of  cast-iron,  paneled 
with  stained  glass — each  pane  bearing  the  arms  of  the 
different  States,  bound  by  most  ornate  mouldings,  bronz- 
ed and  gilded.  The  gallery,  which  entirely  surrounds 
the  hall,  will  seat  one  thousand  persons.  Over  the  Vice- 
President's  chair,  the  section  you  see  separated  from  the 
rest  by  a  network  of  wire,  is  the  reporters'  gallery.  The 
one  opposite,  lined  with  green,  is  the  gallery  of  the  diplo- 
matic corps ;  next  are  the  seats  reserved  for  the  Senators' 
families.  The  Senators  sit  in  three  semi-circular  rows, 
behind  small  desks  of  polished  wood,  facing  the  Secretary 
of  the  Senate,  his  assistants,  the  special  reporters  of  de- 
bates, and  the  Vice-President. 

On  a  dais,  raised  above  all,  sits  the  Vice-President.  I 
have  seen  six  men  preside  over  the  Senate.  Hamlin,  slow, 
solid,  immobile,  and  good-natured.  Foote,  silver-haired., 
silver-toned,  the  king  of  parliamentarians.  Foster  of 
Connecticut,  that  most  gentle  gentleman,  who  went  from 
the  Senate  bearing  the  good  will  of  every  Senator  what- 
ever his  politics.  Wade,  the  most  positive  power  of  all, 
with  his  high,  steep  head,  shaggy  eyebrows,  beetling  per- 
ceptive brow,  half  roofing  the  melancholy  eyes,  the  rough- 
hewn  nose,  the  dogged  mouth,  and  broad  immovable 
chin.  Life  lines  our  faces  according  to  its  will  and  gaz- 


97 

ing  on  the  furrows  of  this  one,  one  reads  the  story  of  the 
whole  battle.  Looking,  there  was  no  need  that  its  own- 
er should  tell  what  a  warfare  life  had  been  since  the  poor 
farmer-boy,  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  turned  his  face 
from  the  Connecticut  Valley  and  striving  with  the  earth 
beneath  his  feet  dug  his  way  (on  the  Erie  Canal)  toward 
the  West  to  fortune,  and  to  an  honorable  fame.  Then 
came  Schuyler  Colfax,  who  brought  into  the  silent  and 
stately  Senate  the  habits  of  the  bustling  noisy  house.  It 
was  a  hard  seat  for  "Schuyler,"  that  Vice-President's 
chair,  and  he  came  at  last  to  vacate  it  regularly  by  two 
o'clock  that  he  might  write  in  the  seclusion  of  the  Vice- 
President's  room  a  few  of  those  ten  thousand  popular  per- 
sonal letters  which  made  his  chief  lever  of  influence  with 
the  people  and  which  he  always  used  to  write  in  the 
Speaker's  chair.  As  President  of  the  Senate  he  was 
usually  just,  always  urbane,  never  impressive.  He  had 
not  the  presence  which  filled  the  seat  to  the  sight,  nor 
the  dignity  which  commanded  attention,  and  silence. 
Under  his  ruling  the  Senate  changed  its  character  per- 
ceptibly from  a  grave  august  body  to  a  buzzing  and  in- 
attentive one.  As  the  President  of  the  Senate  seldom 
listened  to  a  speaker,  the  Senators  as  rarely  took  the 
trouble  to  listen  to  each  other.  The  question  discussed 
might  be  of  the  gravest  import  to  the  whole  nation,  the 
speaker's  words,  to  himself,  might  be  of  the  most  tremen- 
dous importance  to  the  national  weal,  just  the  same  he  had 
to  empty  them  upon  vacancy,  speaking  to  nothing  in  par- 
ticular, while  the  Vice-President  looked  another  way,  and 
his  colleagues  went  on  scribbling  letters,  whispering  po- 
litical secrets  to  each  other,  munching  apples  in  the  aisles 
or  smoking  in  the  open  cloak-rooms,  with  feet  aloft. 


98  TEN    YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

Vice-President  Wilson,  without  an  atom  of  parliamen- 
tary experience,  has  already  won  the  hearts  and  improv- 
ed the  manners  of  the  Senate  by  simply  giving  attention 
to  its  debates.  No  matter  how  tiresome,  he  steadfastly 
looks  and  listens.  The  humblest  speaker — seeing  that  he 
has  one  pair  of  eyes  fixed  upon  him,  one  direct  immova- 
ble point'  toward  which  he  may  direct  his  remarks — takes 
heart,  and  in  spite  of  himself  makes  a  better  speech  than 
would  be  possible  were  he  beating  a  vacuum,  and  speak- 
ing to  nobody  in  particular.  Even  his  listening  constit- 
uency and  the  next  day's  Globe  is  not  such  an  incentive 
to  present  inspiration  as  two  steadfast  eyes  and  one  pair 
of  good  listening  ears. 

We  leave  the  Senate  Chamber  by  the  western  gallery. 
Here  in  the  niche  at  the  foot  of  the  staircase,  correspond- 
ing to  Franklin's  on  the  opposite  side,  stands  the  noble 
figure  of  John  Hancock.  The  stairs  are  of  polished  white 
marble  and  the  painting  above  them  leading  to  the  gen- 
tlemen's gallery  of  the  Senate,  in  its  setting  of  maroon 
cloth  represents  the  battle  of  Chapultapec  in  all  the  ar- 
dor of  its  fiery  action.  We  saunter  on  along  the  breezy 
corridors  through  whose  open  windows  we  catch  delicious 
glimpses  of  the  garden  city,  the  gliding  river  and  the 
distant  hills,  past  the  Supreme  Court  room  into  the  great 
rotunda. 

The  rotunda  is  ninety-five  feet  in  diameter,  three  hun- 
dred feet  in  circumference  and  over  one  hundred  and 
eighty  feet  in  height.  Its  dome  contains  over  eight  mil- 
lions eight  hundred  thousand  pounds  of  iron,  presenting 
the  most  finished  specimen  of  iron  architecture  in  the 
world.  The  panels  of  the  rotunda  are  set  with  paintings 
of  life-size,  painted  by  Vanderlyn,  Trumbull  and  others. 


THE  SENATE  CHAMBER. 
INSIDE  THE  CAPITOL.— WASHINGTON. 


"IP   I   WERE   A  MAN."  99 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  ;  the  surrender  of  Bur- 
goyne ;  surrender  of  the  British  Army,  commanded  by 
Lord  Cornwallis,  at  Yorktown,  Virginia,  October  19, 
1781;  resignation  of  General  Washington  at  Annapolis, 
December  23, 1783,  all  by  Colonel  Trumbull;  the  baptism 
of  Pocahontas  by  Chapman ;  landing  of  Columbus  by  Van- 
derlyn ;  De  Soto's  discovery  of  the  Mississippi,  by  Powell. 
Like  most  works  of  genius  these  paintings  have  many 
merits  arfd  many  defects.  Perhaps  the  favorite  of  all  is 
the  Embarcation  of  the  Pilgrims  in  the  Speedwell  at  Delft 
Haven,  by  Robert  W.  Weir.  Its  figures  and  the  fabrics 
of  its  costumes  are  wonderfully  painted  ;  so,  too,  is  the 
face  of  the  hoary  Pilgrim  who  is  giving  thanks  to  God 
for  their  safe  passage  across  stormy  seas  to  the  land  of 
deliverance  ;  but  the  enchantment  of  the  picture  is  the 
face  of  Rose  Standish.  If  I  were  a  man,  I  would  marry 
such  a  face  out  of  all  the  faces  on  the  earth,  for  the  being 
which  it  represents.  These  eyes,  blue  as  heaven  and  as 
true,  would  never  fail  you.  No  matter  how  low  you  might 
fall,  you  could  see  only  in  them  purity,  faith,  devotion, 
tenderness,  and  unutterable  love — and  all  for  you. 

The  group  in  bas-relief  over  the  western  entrance  of 
the  rotunda  was  executed  by  Cappelano,  a  pupil  of  Can- 
ova.  It  represents  the  preservation  of  Captain  Smith  by 
Pocahontas.  The  design  was  taken  from  a  rude  engrav- 
ing of  the  event  in  the  first  edition  of  Smith's  History  of 
Virginia.  The  idea  is  national,  but  you  see  the  execu- 
tion is  preposterous.  Powhatan  looks  like  an  English- 
man, and  Pocahontas  has  a  Greek  face  and  a  Grecian 
head-dress.  The  alto-relievo  over  the  eastern  entrance 
of  the  rotunda  represents  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims. 
The  pilgrim,  his  wife  and  child  are  stepping  from  the 


100  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

prow  of  a  boat  to  receive  from  the  hand  of  an  Indian, 
kneeling  on  the  rock  before  them,  an  ear  of  corn.  Good 
Indian.  He  was  no  relation  to  the  Modoc  !  Still  the 
little  boy  evidently  has  no  faith  in  him  for  he  is  tugging 
at  his  father's  arm  as  if  to  hold  him  back  from  that  ear 
of  corn  or  the  hand  that  holds  it. 

Over  the  south  door  of  the  rotunda  we  have  Daniel 
Boone  and  two  Indians  in  a  forest.  Boone  has  dispatched 
one  Indian  and  is  in  close  battle  with  the  other.*  The  lat- 
ter is  doing  his  best  to  strike  Boone  with  his  tomahawk, 
but  Boone  averts  the  blow,  by  his  rifle  in  one'  hand,  while 
the  other  drawn  back  holds  a  long  knife  which  he  is 'about 
to  run  through  his  foe.  The  action  is  exciting  enough 
for  the  New  York  Ledger,  although  rendered  tangled 
and  cramped  by  a  too  narrow  space.  It  commemorates 
an  occurrence  which  took  place  in  the  year  1773.  This, 
as  well  as  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  was  executed  by 
Causici,  another  pupil  of  Canova.  Over  the  northern 
door  of  the  rotunda  we  have  William  Penn  standing  un- 
der an  elin,  in  the  act  of  presenting  a  treaty  to  the  Indi- 
ans. Penn  is  dressed  as  a  Quaker,  and  looks  as  benevolent 
as  the  crude  stone  out  of  which  he  is  made  will  let  him. 
This  panel  was  executed  by  a  Frenchman  named  Genelot. 

We  pass  through  the  noblest  room  of  the  Capitol,  the 
old  Hall  of  Representatives  and  through  the  open  cor- 
ridor directly  into  the  new  Hall  of  Representatives.  It 
occupies  the  precise  place  in  the  south  wing  which  the 
Senate  Chamber  does  in  the  northern  wing.  Like  the  Sen- 
ate room,  the  light  of  day  comes  to  it  but  dimly  through 
the  stained  glass  roof  overhead.  Like  that,  also,  it  is  en- 
tire, encircled  by  a  corridor  opening  into  smoking  apart- 
ments, committee  rooms,  the  Speaker's  room,  etc.,  which 


THE  HALL  OF  REPRESENTATIVES. 
INSIDE  THE  CAPITOL.— WASHINGTON. 


WHERE    OUR   LAWS   ARE    MADE.  101 

monopolize  all  the  out  of  door  air,  and  every  out  of  door 
view.  The  air  of  the  central  chamber  is  pumped  into  it 
by  a  tremendous  engine  at  work  in  the  depths  of  the 
Capitol  and  admitted  through  ventilators  one  under  each 
desk.  You  see  these  are  covered  with  shining  brass 
plates  which  by  a  touch  of  the  foot  can  be  adjusted  to  ad- 
mit a  current  of  fresh  air,  or  shut  it  off,  according  to  the 
wish  of  the  occupant  of  the  chair  above  it.  In  former 
times  these  ventilators  were  uncovered,  and  then  were 
used  to  such  an  extent  as  spittoons  by  the  honorable  gen- 
tlemen above  them,  and  filled  to  suet  a  depth  with  to- 
bacco quids  and  the  stumps  of  cigars  that  the  odor  from 
them  became  unbearable  and  they  had  to  be  covered  up. 

The  Hall  of  Representatives  is  139  feet  long,  93  feet 
wide  and  30  feet  high  with  a  gallery  running  entirely 
around  the  Hall,  holding  seats  for  1200  persons.  Like 
the  Senate,  the  ceiling  is  of  iron  work  bronzed,  gilded  and 
paneled  with  glass,  each  pane  decorated  with  the  arms  of 
a  State.  At  the  corners  of  these  panels  in  gilt  and  bronze 
are  rosettes  of  the  cotton  plant  in  its  various  stages  of 
bud  and  blossom.  The  Speaker's  desk,  splendid  in  pro- 
portion, is  of  pure  white  marble,  while  crossed  above  his 
head  are  two  brilliant  silk  flags  of  the  United  States. 
One  of  the  panels  under  the  gallery  at  his  left  is  filled 
with  a  painting  in  fresco,  by  Brumidi. 

The  Speaker's  room,  in  the  rear  of  his  chair  across  the 
inner  lobby,  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  rooms  in  the 
Capitol.  Its  ornaments  are  not  as  glaring  as  those  of  the 
President's  and  Vice-President's  rooms,  while  its  mirrors, 
carved  book-cases,  velvet  carpets  and  chairs,  give  it  a 
look  of  home  comfort  as  well  as  of  luxury.  It  has  a  bright 
outlook  upon  the  eastern  grounds  of  the  Capitol,  and  its 


102  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

walls  are  hung  with  portraits  of  every  speaker  from  the 
First  Congress  to  the  present  one. 

We  pass  through  the  private  corridor  looking  from  the 
Speaker's  room  out  into  the  grand  colonnaded  vestibule 
opening  upon  the  great  portico  of  the  south  extension. 
These  twenty-four  columns  and  forty  pilasters  have  blos- 
somed from  native  soil.  Athens,  Pompeii,  Rome,  are  left 
out  at  last,  and  looking  up  to  these  flowering  capitals 
we  see  corn-leaves,  tobacco,  and  magnolias  budding  and 
blooming  from  their  marble  crowns.  Every  column,  ev- 
ery pilaster  bears  a*  magnolia,  each  of  a  different  form,  all 
from  casts  of  the  natural  flower.  And  far  below,  beneath 
the  Representatives'  Hall,  there  is  a  row  of  monolithic 
columns  formed  of  the  tobacco  and  thistle.  It  is  above 
the  marble  staircase  opposite,  leading  to  the  ladies'  gal- 
lery, that  we  see  painted  on  the  wall  covering  the  entire 
landing,  the  great  painting  of  Leutze,  representing  the 
"Advance  of  Civilization ;"  "  Westward  the  Star  of  Em- 
pire takes  its  way" — is  its  motto.  At  the  first  glance 
it  presents  a  scene  of  inextricable  confusion.  It  is  an 
emigrant  train  caught  and  tangled  in  one  of  the  highest 
passes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Far  backward  spread 
the  Eastern  Plains;  far  onward  stretches  the  Beulah  of 
promise,  fading  at  last  in  the  far  horizon.  The  great  wag- 
ons struggling  upward,  tumbling  downward  from  moun- 
tain precipice  into  mountain  gorge,  hold  under  their  shak- 
ing covers  every  type  of  westward  moving  human  life. 
Here  is  the  mother  sitting  in  the  wagon-front,  her  blue 
eyes  gazing  outward,  wistfully  and  far,  the  baby  lying 
on  her  lap ;  one  wants  to  touch  the  baby's  head,  it  looks 
so  alive  and  tender  and  shelterless  in  all  that  dust  and 
turmoil  of  travel.  A  man  on  horseback  carries  his  wife, 


THE    NEW-BORN    WEST.  103 

her  head  upon  his  shoulder.  Who  that  has  ever  seen  it 
will  forget  her  sick  look  and  the  mute  appeal  in  the  suf- 
fering eyes.  Here  is  the  bold  hunter  with  his  racoon 
cap,  the  pioneer  boy  on  horseback,  a  coffee-pot  and  cup 
dangling  at  his  saddle,  and  oxen — such  oxen !  it  seems  as 
if  their  friendly  noses  must  touch  us ;  they  seem  to  be 
feeling  out  for  our  hand  as  we  pass  up  to  the  gallery. 
Here  is  the  young  man,  the  old  man,  and  far  aloft  stands 
the  advance  guard  fastening  on  the  highest  and  farthest 
pinnacle  the  flag  of  the  United  States. 

Confusing,  disappointing  perhaps,  at  first  glance,  this 
painting  asserts  itself  more  and  more  in  the  soul  the  oft- 
ener  and  the  longer  you  gaze.  Already  the  swift,  smooth 
wheels  of  the  railway,  the  shriek  of  the  whistle,  and  the 
rush  of  the  engine  have  made  its  story  history.  But  it  is 
the  history  of  our  past — the  story  of  the  heroic  West. 
It  is  one  of  a  thousand  which  should  line  the  walls  of  the 
Capitol,  feeding  the  hearts  of  the  American  people  to  the 
latest  generation  with  the  memory  of  our  forefathers, 
showing  by  what  toilsome  ways  they  followed  the  Star 
of  Empire  and  made  the  paths  of  civilization  smooth 
for  their  children's  feet. 


CHAPTER  X. 

OUTSIDE  THE  CAPITOL. 

The  Famous  Bronze  Doors — The  Capitol  Grounds — Statue  of  Washington 
Criticised — Peculiar  Position  for  "  the  Father  of  his  Country  " — Horace 
Greenough's  Defence  of  the  Statue — Picturesque  Scenery  Around  the 
Capitol— The  City  and  Suburbs— The  Public  Reservation— The  Smith- 
sonian Institution — The  Potomac  and  the  Eights  of  Arlington. 

WE  come  back  to  the  grand  vestibule  of  the  southern 
wing,  to  the  flowering  magnolias,  tobacco  and  corn- 
leaves  of  the  marble  capitals,  and  pass  out  to  the  great 
portico.  This  is  one  of  the  famous  bronze  doors  designed 
by  Rogers,  and  cast  in  Munich.  How  heavy,  slow,  and 
still,  its  swing!  The  other  opens  and  closes  upon  the 
central  door  of  the  north  wing,  leading  to  the  vestibule 
of  the  Senate. 

Here,  from  the  portico  we  look  out  upon  the  eastern 
grounds  of  the  Capitol  in  the  unsullied  panoply  of  a  June 
morning,  across  the  closely  shorn  grass,  the  borders  of 
roses  and  beds  of  flowers,  through  the  vista  of  maples 
with  their  green  arcade  of  light  and  shadow,  to  the  august 
form  of  George  Washington  sitting  in  the  centre  of  the 
grounds  in  a  lofty  cerule  chair  mounted  on  a  pedestal  ol 
granite  twelve  feet  high. 

This  is  the  grandest  and  most  criticised  work  of  art 
about  the  Capitol.  The  form  being  nude  to  the  waist 
and  the  right  arm  outstretched,  it  is  a  current  vulgar  joke 


IDEALITY   VERSUS   FACT.  105 

that  he  is  reaching  out  his  hand  for  his  clothes  which  are 
on  exhibition  in  a  case  at  the  Patent  Office.  It  is  true  that 
a  sense  of  personal  discomfort  seems  to  emanate  from  the 
drapery — or  lack  of  it — and  the  pose  of  this  colossal  figure. 
George  Washington  with  his  right  arm  outstretched,  his 
left  forever  holding  up  a  Roman  sword,  half  naked,  yet 
sitting  in  a  chair,  beneath  bland  summer  skies,  within  a 
veiling  screen  of  tender  leaves  is  a  much  more  comfort- 
able looking  object  than  when  the  winds  and  rains  and 
snows  of  winter  beat  upon  his  unsheltered  head  and  un- 
covered form.  This  statue  was  designed  in  imitation  of 
the  antique  statue  of  Jupiter  Tonans.  The  ancients  made 
their  statues  of  Jupiter  naked  above  and  draped  below  as 
being  visible  to  the  gods  but  invisible  to  men.  But  the 
average  American  citizen,  being  accustomed  to  seeing  the 
Father  of  his  country  decently  attired  in  small  clothes, 
naturally  receives  a  shock  at  first  beholding  him  in  next 
to  no  clothes  at  all.  It  is  impossible  for  him  to  reconcile 
a  Jupiter  in  sandals  with  the  stately  George  Washing- 
ton in  knee-breeches  and  buckled  shoes.  The  spirit  of 
the  statue,  which  is  ideal,  militates  against  the  spirit  of 
the  land  which  is  utilitarian  if  not  commonplace. 

Nevertheless,  in  poetry  of  feeling,  in  grandeur  of  con- 
ception, in  exquisite  fineness  of  detail  and  in  execution, 
Horatio  Greenough's  statue  of  George  Washington  is 
transcendently  the  greatest  work  in  marble  yet  wrought 
at  the  command  of  the  government  for  the  Capitol.  It  is1 
scarcely  human,  certainly  not  American,  but  it  is  god- 
like. The  face  is  a  perfect  portrait  of  Washington.  The 
veining  of  a  single  hand,  the  muscles  of  a  single  arm  are 
triumphs  of  art. 

Washington's  chair  is  twined  with  acanthus  leaves  and 


106  TEN   YEAES    IN   WASHINGTON. 

garlands  of  flowers.  The  figure  of  Columbus  leans  against 
the  back  of  the  seat  to  the  left,  connecting  the  history  of 
America  with  that  of  Europe;  an  Indian  chief  on  the  right 
represents  the  condition  of  the  country  at  the  time  of  its 
discovery.  The  back  of  the  seat  is  ornamented  in  basso- 
relievo  with  the  rising  sun,  the  crest  of  the  American 
arms,  under  which  is  this  motto :  "  Magnus  ab  integro 
sceculorum  nascitur  or  do."  On  the  left  is  sculptured  in 
bas-relief  the  genii  of  North  and  South  America  under 
the  forms  of  the  infant  Hercules  strangling  the  serpent, 
and  Iphiclus  stretched  on  the  ground  shrinking  in  fear 
from  the  contest.  The  motto  is  "  Incipe  posse  puer  cut 
non  risere  parentes"  On  the  back  of  the  seat  is  the  fol< 
lowing  motto :  "  Simulacrum  istud  ad  magnum  Liber* 
tatis  exemplum.  Nee  sine  ipsa  duraturum." 

One  of  the  greatest  works  of  contemporary  art,  the 
masterpiece  of  a  master,  it  has  been  the  subject  of  more 
rude  and  vulgar  jests  than  any  other  piece  of  American 
sculpture.  The  painful  disparity  which  so  often  exists 
between  the  judgment  of  the  multitude  and  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  creator  has  never  been  more  touchingly  illus- 
trated than  in  the  following  words  of  Horatio  Greenough, 
concerning  this  monument  to  his  own  genius  and  to  the 
Father  of  his  country.  He  says :  "  It  is  the  birth  of  my 
thoughts,  I  have  sacrificed  to  it  the  flower  of  my  days,  and 
the  freshness  of  my  strength ;  its  every  lineament  has 
been  moistened  with  the  sweat  of  my  toil  and  the  tears  of 
my  exile.  I  would  not  barter  away  its  association  with 
my  name  for  the  proudest  fortune  that  avarice  ever 
dreamed  of.  In  giving  it  up  to  the  nation  that  has  done 
me  the  honor  to  order  it  at  my  hands,  I  respectfully  claim 
for  it  that  protection  which  is  the  boast  of  civilization  to 


A  RAMBLE   IN   THE   CAPITOL   GROUNDS.  107 

afford  art,  and  which  a  generous  enemy  has  more  than 
once  been  seen  to  extend  even  to  the  monuments  of  its 
own  defeat.''' 

Retracing  our  steps  to  the  rotunda,  we  turn  westward 
through  the  main  hall  of  the  Congressional  Library  to  the 
lofty  colonnade  outside,  from  whose  balcony  we  look  down 
upon  the  view  which  Humbolt  declared  to  be  the  most 
beautiful  of  its  type  in  the  whole  world.  Directly  below 
us,  past  the  western  terrace  of  the  Capitol,  with  its  open 
basin  full  of  gold  fishes  flashing  in  the  sun,  stretch  the 
Capitol  grounds.  Many  varieties  of  trees  already  grown 
to  forest  hight  spread  their  interlacing  roof  of  cool, 
green  shadow  over  the  malachite  sward  below.  Beds  of 
flowers  set  in  the  grass,  from  the  early  March  crocuses  to 
the  November  blooming  roses,  make  the  grounds  fragrant 
and  precious  with  their  presence.  Here  the  dandelion 
spreads  its  cloth  of  gold  in  early  May.  Here  the  chrysan- 
themums fringe  the  snow  with  pallid  gold  in  white  Decem- 
ber. Now  the  fountains  are  lapsing  in  dreamy  tune 
through  the  long  June  hours,  and  the  seats  under  the  trees 
are  filled  with  visitors.  Nurses  with  children  in  their  arms, 
old  men  and  women  leaning  on  their  staffs,  lovers  "  billing 
and  cooing  "  through  the  long  twilight  and  starlight  sea- 
sons. Beyond  spreads  the  city,  every  ugly  outline  hid- 
den and  lost  in  a  waving  sea  of  greenery  rippling  and  toss- 
ing above  it.  The  great  avenues  run  and  radiate  in  all 
directions.  Pennsylvania  Avenue  stretches  straight  on 
between  its  border  of  shade  trees  to  its  acropolis  one  mile 
distant,  the  great  Treasury  gleaming  in  the  sun,  and  the 
white  chimneys  of  the  Executive  Mansion  peering  above 
the  trees ;  and  still  on,  till  it  joins  the  primitive  streets 
-of  Georgetown.  Massachusetts  Avenue,  broad,  straight, 


108  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

magnificent,  spans  the  city  from  end  to  end  unbroken. 
Virginia  Avenue  to  the  left,  goes  on  to  meet  Long 
Bridge,  leading  far  into  the  Old  Dominion.  Directly  in 
front  stretches  the  public  reservation  yet  to  be  made 
splendid  as  the  Nation's  Boulevards,  but  already  holding 
the  Congressional  gardens  and  conservatories,  the  unique 
towers,  and  picturesque  grounds  of  the  Smithsonian  In- 
stitution, the  broad  flower-banded  terraces  of  the  Agri- 
cultural Department,  and  the  incomplete  Washington 
Monument.  Beyond  we  see  the  wide  Potomac,  flecked 
all  over  with  snowy  sails,  far  down  old  Alexandria,  dingy 
on  its  farther  shore ;  opposite  the  Heights  of  Arlington, 
and  amid  its  immemorial  oaks;  Arlington  House  with 
the  stars  and  stripes  floating  free  from  its  crowning 
summit. 


CHAPTER  XL 
ART  TREASURES  OF  THE  CAPITOL. 

Arrival  of  a  Solitary  Lady — "  The  Pantheon  of  America  " — H  Penserosa— 
Milton's  Ideal — Dirty  Condition  of  the  House  of  Representatives — The 
Goddess  of  Melancholy — Vinnie  Ream's  Statue  of  Lincoln — Its  Grand 
Defects — Necessary  Qualifications  for  a  Sculptor — The  Bust  of  Lincoln 
by  Mrs.  Ames — General  Greene  and  Roger  Williams — Barbarous  Gar- 
ments of  Modern  Times — Statues  of  Jonathan  Trumbull  and  Roger 
Sherman — Bust  of  Kosciusco — Pulling  His  Nose — Alexander  Hamilton — 
Fate  of  Senator  Burr — Statue  of  Baker — His  Last  Speech  Prophetic — 
The  Glory  of  a  Patriotic  Example — The  Lesson  which  Posterity  Learns 
— Horatio  Stone,  the  Sculptor — Washington's  Statue  at  Richmond — 
Neglected  Condition  of  the  Capitol  Statuary — Curious  Clock — Gro~ 
tesque  Plaster  Image  of  Liberty — Webster — Clay— Adams — The  Pan- 
theon at  Rome— The  French  Pantheon— Bar-Maid  Goddess— Dirty  Cus- 
toms of  M.  C's — Future  Glory  of  America. 

A  SOLITARY  lady  has  arrived  in  the  old  Hall  of  the 
House  of  Representatives ;  or,  as  Senator  Anthony 
eloquently  calls  it,  "  the  Pantheon  of  America."  "  Con- 
sidering her  age,"  (as  women  sweetly  say  of  each  other,) 
"she  looks  quite  young."  What  her  precise  age  may 
be,  I  am  as  unable  to  tell  you  as  that  of  any  other  of 
my  friends.  The  daughter  of  Saturn  and  Vesta,  we  may, 
at  least,  conclude  that  she  has  lived  long  enough  to  look 
older  than  she  does.  Her  name  is  "H  Penserosa,"  and, 
"  to  judge  by  appearances,"  she  seems  to  have  flourished 
about  twenty-five  of  our  mortal  years.  Yet  Milton  sung 
of  her  in  his  youth,  before  an  unruly  wife  and  three  dis- 
obedient daughters,  (who  perversely  wished  to  understand 


110  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

the  alphabet  which  they  read  to  their  blind  father,)  had 
made  him  crabbed  and  loftily  sour  towards  women — 
Milton  sung  of  this  maid  who  has  but  lately  arrived  in 
Washington : 

"  Come,  pensive  nun,  devout  and  pure, 
Sober,  steadfast,  and  demure, 
All  in  a  robe  of  darkest  grain 
Flowing  with  majestic  train, 
And  sable  stole  of  cypress  lawn, 
Over  thy  decent  shoulders  drawn  ; 
Come,  but  keep  thy  wonted  state 
With  even  step  and  musing  gait, 
And  looks  commercing  with  the  skies, 
Thy  rapt  soul  sitting  in  thine  eyes." 

Now,  if  this  maiden  can  keep  on  holding  her  head  up, 
with  looks  perpetually  "  commercing  with  the  skies  "  so 
that  it  will  be  impossible  for  her  to  see  all  the  tobacco- 
juice  and  apple-cores  beneath  and  round  about  her,  it 
will  conduce  greatly  to  her  peace  of  mind.  I  am  sorry 
that  "the  Pantheon  of  America"  is  not  a  cleaner  looking 
place.  It's  a  pity,  as  we  have  a  Pantheon,  that  its  shabbi- 
ness  and  dirt  should  flourish  to  a  degree  that  is  absolutely 
melancholy.  I  am  sure  it  was  in  obedience  to  the  law  of 
fitness  that  the  committee  of  the  Congressional  Library 
or  some  other  committee,  brought  the  Goddess  of  Melan- 
choly in  here,  to  hold  her  eyes  and  nose  aloft,  and  to 
stand  supreme  queen,  regnant  of  dust  and  gloom  and 
American  "  expectoration."  "  Hail !  divinest  Melancholy." 
"I  am  glad,  judging  by  your  face,  that  you  are  of  the  lym- 
phatic temperament,  and  that  consequently,  all  this  dirt 
will  afflict  you  less  than  it  does  me.  But  the  more  I  look 
at  your  impassive  and  soulless  countenance  the  more  I 


THE  GODDESS  OF  MELANCHOLY.         Ill 

fear  that,  after  all,  you  are  but  a  feeble  counterfeit  of 
Milton's  goddess  or  of  the  divine  maiden  conceived  and 
born  in, 

"  Woody,  Ida's  inmost  grove." 

In  speaking  of  this  marble,  my  heart  will  not  let  me 
forget  that  it  was  wrought  by  a  hand  self-taught ;  yet  no 
less,  standing  where  it  does,  it  must  be  measured — some- 
what, at  least — by  the  standards  of  art.  The  figure,  di- 
minutive even  in  its  femininity,  suffers  to  insignificance 
by  being  set  almost  directly  behind  the  gaunt  and  elon- 
gated form  of  Miss  Ream's  "Lincoln;"  yet  it  is  in  the 
figure,  in  its  pose  and  gentle  curves,  its  chaste  and  grace- 
ful drapery,  "the  stole  of  cypress  lawn,  over  the  decent 
shoulders  drawn"  in  the  firm  yet  delicate  hand  which 
holds  it  in  its  place — in  these  only  it  is  that  the  artist  has 
caught  and  fastened  in  stone  the  aspect  of  the  "  goddess, 
sage  and  holy."  The  face  is  meaningless.  Not  a  line, 
not  a  curve,  not  an  expression  indicates  a  capacity  for 
melancholy,  contemplation  or  anything  else  emotional  or 
intellectual.  No  mortal  woman  ever  really  meditated 
for  a  minute  who  did  not  get  her  hair  pushed  back  further 
from  her  eyes  than  this,  but  these  regulation  locks  run 
straight  down  the  little,  senseless  Greek  face  in  a  mathe- 
matical angle,  indissolubly  banded  by  a  little  perked  up 
helmet,  embossed  with  seven  stars.  Why  these  stars? 
"II  Penserosa"  was  not  nearly  enough  related  to  "that 
starred  Ethiop '  queen "  Cassiope,  to  have  borrowed  the 
helmet  to  wear  even  in  the  old  Hall  of  the  old  House 
of  Representatives  "in  the  United  States  of  America." 

As  for  the  Ream  statue  of  Lincoln,  (like  many  people,) 
the  first  glance  at  it  is  the  most  satisfactory  that  you  will 


112  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

ever  have.  It  will  never  look  as  well  again.  Some  de- 
clare this  very  palpable  lack  to  be  in  the  subject — Mr. 
Lincoln's  own  face  and  form — but  many  others  note  it  to 
be  in  this  representation  of  them.  Mr.  Lincoln's  living 
face  was  one  of  the  most  interesting  ever  given  to  man. 
There  was  more  than  fascination  in  its  rugged  homeliness ; 
there  was  in  it  the  deeper  attraction  of  suffering  and  sym- 
pathy. It  outrayed  from  every  line  engraven  there  by 
human  pain  and  love  and  longing.  But  no  soul  can  put 
into  a  statue  or  painting  more  than  it  has  in  itself.  In 
this  statue  of  Mr.  Lincoln  we  have  his  rude  outward  im- 
age, unilluminated  by  one  mental  or  spiritual  character- 
istic. It  is  mechanical,  material,  opaque.  Mrs.  Sarah 
Ames,  in  her  bust  of  Lincoln,  which  stands  just  behind 
our  friend,  "II  Penserosa,"  has  transfixed  more  of  the 
soul  of  Lincoln  in  the  brow  and  eyes  of  his  face  than 
Miss  Ream  has  in  all  the  weary  outline  of  her  many  feet 
of  marble.  In  the  bust  the  lower  part  of  the  face  is  ideal- 
ized into  weakness.  Without  his  gauntness  and  rugged- 
ness  Lincoln  is  not  Lincoln.  But  any  one  who  ever  saw 
and  felt  the  deep,  tender,  sad  outlook  of  his  living  hu- 
manity must  thank  Mrs.  Ames  for  having  reflected  and 
transfixed  it  in  the  brows  and  eyes  of  this  marble. 

Just  outside  of  its  alcove,  at  the  right  hand  of  the  door 
which  enters  the  New  House  of  Representatives,  stand 
side  by  side,  the  two  statues  from  Rhode  Island — one  of 
General  Green,  the  other  of  Roger  Williams.  That  of 
General  Green  is  spirited  and  exquisitely  fine  in  detail; 
while  that  of  Roger  Williams  is  the  one  ideal  statue  in 
our  Pantheon.  Both  were  executed  in  Rome — the  first 
by  Henry  R.  Brown,  the  second  by  Franklin  Simmons, 
of  Providence,  Rhode  Island.  No  portrait  of  Roger  Wil- 


PICTURESQUE   ATTIRE.  113 

liams  being  in  existence,  Mr.  Simmons  has  evolved  from 
imagination  and  his  inner  consciousness  a  quaint,  poetic 
figure  and  a  dreamlike  face,  above  whose  lifted  eyelids 
seems  to  hover  a  seraphic  smile.  Then  it  is  refreshing 
to  turn  from  the  stove-pipe  hats,  shingled  heads  and  angu- 
lar garments  in  which  the  men  of  our  generation  do  pen- 
ance, to  the  flowing  locks,  puckered  knee-breeches,  with 
their  dainty  tassels,  and  the  ample  ruffs  in  which  the 
holy  apostle  of  liberty  represents  his  name  and  time. 
He  holds  a  book  in  his  hand,  on  whose  cover  is  inscribed 
the  words,  "  Soul  Liberty,"  and,  with  open,  uplifted  glance 
and  free  pose  seems  about  to  step  forward  into  air,  with 
lips  just  ready  to  open  with  words  of  inspiration. 

Opposite,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Hall,  stand  together 
Connecticut's  contribution — the  statues  of  Jonathan  Trum- 
bull  and  Roger  Sherman.  They  are  of  heroic  size  and  at 
first  glance  are  most  imposing.  When  you  walk  nearer, 
and  soberly  survey  them,  you  see  that  Roger  Sherman 
looks  solid  and  stolid,  and  you  see  also  (at  least,  I  do,) 
that  old  Jonathan  Trumbull,  with  his  down-perked  head 
and  narrow-lidded  eyes,  looks  like  a  meditative  rooster — 
an  immense  human  chanticleer,  who  had  paused  in  his 
lording  career  for  a  minute's  meditation.  Mind,  I  don't 
say  but  this  may  be  a  grand  statue,  in  its  way,  I  only  ob- 
serve that  it  is  a  very  repelling  one  to  me. 

Just  round  the  angle  of  the  alcove  on  a  box  set  on 
end,  covered  with  tattered  black  cambric,  stands  a  bust 
of  Kosciusko,  by  H.  D.  Saunders.  Poor  Kosciusko !  His 
nose  always  needs  wiping;  and  what  a  pedestal  for  a 
Pantheon  !  A  candle  or  a  soap  box,  probably,  half  cov- 
ered with  black  tags;  then  on  his  nose  celestial,  the  dust 
alights  and  lodges  always.  It  is  so  provocative — the  tip 


114  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

of  it;  every  bumpkin  who  approaches  it  taps  or  pulls  it. 
Thus,  literally,  Kosciusko's  nose  is  seldom  clean.  One 
day  it  was.  Some  pitying  hand  had  washed  the  entire 
face.  If  you  could  have  seen  the  difference  between 
Kosciusko  clean  and  Kosciusko  exiled,  dirty  and  forlorn ! 
A  few  steps  from  this  bust  stands  the  statue  of  Alexander 
Hamilton,  by  Horatio  Stone — a  noble  figure,  spirited  in 
posture  and  beautiful  in  countenance.  No  painted  por- 
trait can  give  so  grand  an  idea  of  the  great  Federalist  to 
posterity.  It  is  eight  feet  high  and  represents  Hamilton 
in  the  attitude  of  impassioned  speech.  It  is  persuasive 
rather  than  declamatory,  for  the  lifted  hands  droop,  the 
face  presses  slightly  forward,  the  eyes  look  out  from  un- 
der their  royal  arches  deep  and  steadfast,  while  the  sun- 
shine pouring  down  the  dome  lights  up  every  lineament 
with  the  intensity  of  life.  The  execution  of  the  statue  is 
exquisite,  while  in  posS  and  expression  it  is  the  embodi- 
ment of  majesty  and  power.  Burr — who  presided  over 
the  Senate,  who  with  the  pride,  subtlety  and  ambition  of 
Lucifer,  planned  and  executed  to  live  in  the  future  amid 
the  most  exalted  names  of  his  time — sleeps  dishonored 
and  accursed ;  while  the  great  rival  that  he  hated,  whose 
success  he  could  not  bear,  whose  life  he  destroyed,  comes 
back  in  this  majestic  semblance  to  abide  in  the  Capitol. 
Thus  we  behold  in  this  statue  not  only  a  "  triumph  of 
art  "  but  also  a  triumph  of  that  final  retributive  compen- 
sation of  justice  which  sooner  or  later  crushes  every 
wrong.  This  image  of  Hamilton  looks  forth  from  an  era 
which,  across  the  gulf  of  our  later  revolution,  seems  al- 
ready remote.  It  recalls  Washington  the  friend,  Jeffer- 
son the  foe,  the  war  of  Colonist  and  Tory,  the  war  of 
ideas  between  Federalist  and  Republican,  the  struggles 


PROPHETIC  SPEECH  OF  BAKER.         115 

and  successes  of  a  splendid  career ;  yet  how  far  removed 
seem  all  across  the  graves  of  the  men  of  our  own  genera- 
tion whom  patriotism  and  death  have  made  illustrious  and 
immortal.  Thus  nearer  and  dearer  to  the  hearts  of  to- 
day must  be  the  image  of  "the  noblest  Roman  of  them 
all."  It  is  a  statue  of  Baker,  also  executed  by  Horatio 
Stone,  in  Rome,  in  1863.  Hamilton  stands  forth  in  heroic 
size,  while  the  statue  of  Baker  is  under  that  of  life,  and 
barely  suggests  the  grand  proportions  of  the  man.  Yet 
the  dignity  and  grandeur  of  his  mien  are  here,  as  he 
stands  wrapped  in  his  cloak,  his  arms  folded,  his  head 
thrown  back,  his  noble  face  lifted  as  if  he  saw  the 
future — his  future — and  awaited  it  undaunted  and  with 
a  joyful  heart.  At  his  side  is  the  plumed  hat  of  a  soldier, 
and  on  the  pedestal  on  which  he  stands  are  graven  words 
from  his  last  speech  in  the  United  States  Senate,  when 
he  replied  to  Breckenridge,  "There  will  be  some  graves 
reeking  with  blood,  watered  by  the  tears  of  affection. 
There  will  be  some  privation.  There  will  be  some  loss 
of  luxury;  there  will  be  somewhat  more  need  of  labor 
to  procure  the  necessaries  of  life.  When  that  is  said,  all 
is  said.  If  we  have  the  country,  the  whole  country, 
the  Union,  the  constitution,  free  government — with  these 
will  return  all  the  blessings  of  a  well  ordered  civilization. 
The  path  of  the  country  will  be  a  course  of  grandeur  and 
glory  such  as  our  fathers  in  the  olden  time  foresaw  in 
the  dim  visions  of  years  to  come — such  as  would  have 
been  ours  to-day,  had  it  not  been  for  the  treason  for 
which  the  senator  too  often  seeks  to  apologize." 

Thus  to  the  land  he  loved  he  gave  his  life — a  life  so 
rich  in  every  quality  that  rounds  and  completes  the  high- 
est manhood. 


116  TEN   YEARS    IN    WASHINGTON. 

At  sight  of  this  mute  marble,  what  memories  are  stir- 
red !  Again,  in  and  around  Union  Square  throbs  the  vast 
human  mass.  Banners  wave,  cannons  boom,  drums 
beat,  men  march.  Every  pulse  of  the  air  thrills  with  the 
cry,  "  T,o  Arms  ! "  Amid  all  the  orators  of  that  hour, 
whose  voice  uttered  such  burning  words  as  Baker — he 
who  left  the  seat  of  a  senator  for  the  grave  of  a  soldier. 
Thank  God  for  our  dead  who  yet  live.  No  land  has  a 
more  priceless  legacy.  No  soil  was  ever  planted  with 
richer  blood.  No  freedom  ever  bought  with  a  costlier  vic- 
tory. Let  me  tell  you,  public  men,  amid  all  your  lavish 
expenditures  of  money  wrung  from  the  people,  never  be- 
grudge the  price  you  pay  for  the  fit  statue  of  a  great  char- 
acter. Line  the  corridors  of  the  Capitol  with  the  images  of 
the  noble  and  the  good,  that,  by  suggestion  and  semblance, 
they  may  arouse  to  a  purer  purpose  the  emulation  of  the 
living.  In  these  halls  where  lobbyists  congregate,  where 
money-changers  stand  with  shameless  faces  offering  their 
venal  price  for  truth  and  honor,  buying  and  selling  the 
integrity  of  manhood,  give  to  our  eyes  at  least  the  mem- 
ories of  high  example.  If  men  in  the  rush  of  affairs  and 
the  absorption  of  their  ambitions  take  no  time  to  study 
them,  thoughtful  women  will  pause  and  ponder,  and  then 
teach  the  children  who  are  to  rule  after  us  to  love  and  re- 
member. 

I  look  on  these  statues  and  think  of  the  man  who 
wrought  them — think  of  him  as  I  saw  him  every  day  six 
years  ago,  a  pale,  dissatisfied,  restless  man,  whose  hands 
were  busy,  with  uncongenial  tasks,  but  whose  brain  was 
haunted  with  noble  ideals,  to  which  he  was  powerless  to 
give  form  or  substance.  Opportunity,  the  ultimate  test 
of  all  power,  came  to  him  and  at  last  Congress  voted  ten 


WHY   WASHINGTON    "NEVER   WAS    NAUGHTY."       117 

thousand  dollars  to  Horatio  Stone  to  execute  the  statue 
of  Alexander  Hamilton  in  Rome.  And,  lo  !  the  intang- 
ible vision  of  the  weary  man  is  embodied  in  imperishable 
marble — the  most  majestic  statue  beneath  the  dome  of  the 
Capitol.  A  little  way  before  it  is  a  plaster  cast,  mounted 
high  on  a  wooden  block,  of  Houdin's  bronze  figure  of 
Washington,  the  original  of  which  is  in  the  State  Capitol 
at  Richmond,  Virginia.  Such  a  peaked-headed,  idiotic- 
looking  Washington  I  never  saw  elsewhere.  If  he  looked 
like  this,  it  is  perfectly  plain  why  he  passed  through  life 
without  ever  once  having  done  anything  naughty.  But 
if  he  did  look  like  this  he  was  a  stupid  mortal  to  live 
with.  Most  of  the  marbles  of  our  Pantheon  are  poorly  set. 
Even  the  seraphic  apostle  of  "soul  liberty"  stands  on  a 
box  covered  with  cinnamon-colored  cambric,  and  his  mar- 
tial brother  does  likewise.  Abraham  Lincoln  is  ensconced 
within  an  unpainted  wooden  fence,  and  the  great  lawgiv- 
fers  of  Connecticut  stand  in  their  big  cloaks  upon  cotton 
covered  boxes.  Mrs.  Ames'  bust  of"  Lincoln  "  is  poised  on 
a  handsome  pedestal  of  Scotch  granite  ;  but,  with  few  ex- 
ceptions, though  not  utterly  barren  of  fine  marbles,  the 
present  aspect  of  the  American  Pantheon  is  chiefly  sug- 
gestive of  crudeness,  shabbiness,  and — the  exorbitant  ne- 
cessity of  spittoons.  Over  the  entrance  is  a  clock,  hav- 
ing for  its  dial  the  wheels  of  a  winged  car,  resting  on 
a  globe.  In  this  car  sits  a  lady  called  History,  with  a 
scroll  and  pen  in  hand.  Oh!  the  story  she  could  tell 
if  she  could  tell  the  truth.  Opposite,  twenty-four  Corin- 
thian columns  of  variegated  Potomac  marble  shoot  to  the 
roof,  and  shadow  what  was  once  the  gallery  of  the  Old 
Hall  of  Representatives.  In  the  centre  stands  a  horrid- 
looking  plaster  image  of  Liberty,  modeled  by  Cansici; 


118  TEN    YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

and  under  it  the  American  bird,  modeled  from  life  and 
cut  in  sandstone  by  Volaperti.  Besides,  scattered  about 
are  portraits  of  Henry  Clay,  a  mosaic  portrait  of  Lincoln, 
by  Signor  Salviato  of  Venice,  of  Charles  Carroll  of  Car- 
rollton,  and  of  Joshua  Giddings. 

I  have  meant  to  pass  nothing  over  that  graces  or  dis- 
graces our  American  Pantheon,  that  you,  afar,  may  see  it 
as  it  is.  In  itself  it  is  the  most  majestic  room  in  the 
Capitol.  Set  apart  to  enshrine  the  sculptured  forms  of 
illustrious  dead,  already  its  arches  and  alcoves  are  fraught 
with  their  living  memoirs.  Here  Webster  spoke,  here 
Clay  presided,  here  Adams  died. 

It  is  modeled  from  the  Roman  Pantheon,  and  its  roof, 
at  least,  is  like  it.  We  have  no  proof  that  the  Roman 
Pantheon  was  set  apart  for  such  a  purpose  as  that  to 
which  our  own  is  dedicated ;  indeed,  in  the  beginning 
it  was  supposed  to  be  connected  with  the  Roman  baths. 
To-day  it  is  chiefly  sacred  to  art  as  the  burial-place 
of  Raphael.  The  French  Pantheon,  also,  was  compar- 
atively poor  in  statues,  though  boasting  of  immense 
compositions  in  painting,  by  David  and  Gros.  Herein 
the  great  men  who  have  illustrated  France  appear  in 
the  forms  of  Fenelon,  Malesherbes,  Mirabeau,  Voltaire, 
Rousseau,  Lafayette,  and  others ;  while  at  their  feet,  as 
befits  their  sex,  sit  History  and  Liberty,  properly  em- 
ployed making  wreaths  for  the  heads  of  these  mascu- 
line heroes.  From  the  dome  look  down  Clovis,  Charle- 
magne, St.  Louis,  Louis  XIV.,  XVI.,  XVII.,  Marie  An- 
toinette, Madame  Elizabeth,  with  a  central  glory  to  rep- 
resent Deity.  •  The  dome  of  our  own  rotunda  is  a  florid 
imitation  of  this.  We  have  Franklin,  Washington,  and 
troops  of  goddesses,  who  look  like  bar-maids;  but  from 


COMING  GLORY  OF  THE  FUTURE.         119 

the  focal  apex  we  have  omitted  God,  whose  eye  is  needed 
for  such  an  assembly. 

The  magnificent  facade  which  leads  to  the  Houses  of 
Parliament  in  Westminster  Palace  is  nine  hundred  feet 
long,  paneled  with  tracery  and  decorated  with  rows  of 
majestic  statues  of  the  kings  and  queens  of  England,  from 
the  conquest  to  the  present  time.  Let  us  hope  that  it  will 
never  be  defiled  from  beginning  to  end,  as  our  own  magnifi- 
cent legislative  halls,  with  tobacco-juice  from  the  mouths 
of  demoralized  men.  The  earth  has  never  had  but  one 
absolutely  perfect  building,  in  itself  the  final  consummate 
flower  of  art — the  Parthenon — consecrated  first  to  woman, 
the  Virgin  House,  sacred  to  Athena.  Beneath  its  pure 
and  perfect  dome  there  was  nothing  to  divert  the  gazer's 
contemplation  from  the  simplicity  and  majesty  of  mass 
and  outline.  The  whole  building,  without  and  within, 
was  filled  with  the  most  exquisite  pieces  of  sculpture, 
executed  under  the  guidance  of  Phidias.  The  grand  cen- 
tral figure  was  the  colossal  statue  of  the  Virgin  Goddess, 
wrought  by  the  hand  of  Phidias  himself.  The  weight  of 
gold  which  she  carried,  says  Thucydides,  was  forty  talents. 
Could  a  wooden  fence  guard  so  much  gold  in  our  Christian 
Pantheon  to-day  ?  It  was  a  happy  thought  which  dedi- 
cated this  old  hall  of  the  nation  to  national  art,  but  it  far 
outleaped  its  century.  That  which  shall  truly  be  the 
Pantheon  of  America  is  not  for  us.  The  children  of  later 
generations,  a  far-off  procession,  may  come  up  hither  to 
worship  the  diviner  forms  of  the  future,  the  majestic 
statues  of  the  nation's  best — its  sons  grand  in  manhood, 
its  daughters  divine  in  womanhood ;  but,  with  here  and 
there  a  rare  exception,  our  eyes  who  live  to-day  will  see 
them  not. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

WOMEN  WITH  CLAIMS. 

The  Senate  Reception  Room  —  The  People  Who  Haunt  It  —  Republican 
"Ladies  in  Waiting"  —  "Women  with  Claims"  —  Their  Heroic  Persist- 
ency —  A  Widow  and  Children  in  Distress  —  Claim  Agents  —  The  Com- 
mittee of  Claims  —  A  Kind-hearted  Senator's  Troubles  —  Buttonholing 
a  Senator—  A  Lady  of  Energy—  Resolved  to  Win—  An  "  Office  Brok- 
eress"  —  A  Dragon  of  a  Woman  —  A  Lady  who  is  Feared  if  not  Re- 
spected —  Her  Unfortunate  Victims  —  Carrying  "Her  Measure"  —  The 
Beautiful  Petitioner  —  The  Cloudy  Side  of  her  Character  —  Her  Subtle 
Dealings  —  Her  Successes  —  How  Government  Prizes  are  Won. 


E  room  itself  means  only  grace,  beauty  and  silence. 
The  moment  had  not  come  for  dis-illusion,  thus  I 
went  forth  without  a  word  regarding  its  human  aspect. 
To-day,  dear  friends,  we  will  go  in  and  face  that.  We 
sit  down  in  the  shadow  of  this  Corinthian  pillar,  and,  look- 
ing out  see  the  most  noticeable  fact  is  that  this  lofty 
apartment  is  thronged  with  women.  A  number  are  con- 
versing with  senators  ;  others  are  gazing  toward  the  doors 
which  lead  into  the  Senate.  Some  seem  to  be  waiting 
with  eager  eyes  and  anxious  faces  ;  others  are  leaning 
back  upon  the  sofas  in  attitudes  of  luxurious  listlessness. 
Do  you  ask  why  they  are  here  ?  Are  they  studying  the 
stately  proportions  and  exquisite  finesse  of  the  ante- 
room? Not  at  all.  It  is  not  devotion  to  the  aesthetic 
arts  nor  the  inspiration  of  patriotism,  which  brings  these 
women  thither.  They  are  a  few,  only  a  very  few,  of  the 


THE  INDIES'  RECEPTION  ROOM. 
INSIDE  THE  CAPITOL.— WASHINGTON. 


WAITING   AND   WEARY.  121 

women — with  "claims,"  who,  through  the  sessions  of 
Congress  haunt  the  departments,  the  White  House  and 
the  Capitol. 

The  dejected  looking  woman  on  the  sofa  opposite  is  a 
widow,  with  numerous  small  children.  You  may  be  cer- 
tain by  the  unhopeful  expression  of  her  face  that  it  is  her 
own  claim  which,  almost  unaided  and  alone,  she  is  trying 
to  "  work  through  "  Congress.  Her  home  is  far  distant. 
She  borrowed  money  to  come  here,  she  borrows  money 
to  support  her  children,  money  to  pay  her  own  board; 
borrows  money  to  pay  the  exorbitant  fees  of  the  claim- 
agent,  who,  constantly  fanning  the  flame  of  "great  ex- 
pectations," assures  her  every  day  that  Congress  will  pay 
her  the  thousands  which  she  demands  for  her  losses — will 
pay  her  this  very  session.  Meantime  the  session  is  al- 
most ended,  and  the  widow's  claim,  on  which  hangs  such 
a  heavy  load  of  debt  and  fear,  lies  hidden  and  forgotten 
in  the  pigeon-hole  of  the  Committee  of  Claims.  While 
it  lies  there,  gathering  dust,  she  a  cheaply  clad,  care- 
faced  woman,  no  longer  young,  and  never  pretty,  has 
grown  to  be  most  burdensome  to  Senator ,  espe- 
cially to  the  chairman  of  that  committee.  Irksome,  not 
to  be  desired,  is  the  importunate  presence  of  this  forlorn 
woman.  No  less  irksome  to  these  functionaries  is  the 
sight  of  her  hundred  sisters  in  distress — more  or  less; 
poor  widows,  with  small  children,  with  personal  claims 
upon  the  Government.  The  chairman  dreads  the  sight 
of  this  woman  and  of  her  like.  He  dreads  it  the  more 
that  he  is  perfectly  certain  that  her  case  is  not  reached, 
and  will  not  be  this  session.  A  kind-hearted  man,  he  is 
unwilling  to  set  the  seal  of  despair  on  her  face  by  telling 
her  the  truth.  She  finds  it  out  at  last,  and  then  remem- 


122  TEN   TEAKS    IN    WASHINGTON. 

bering  all  his  evasions,  in  her  disappointment  and  hopeless 
poverty,  she  denounces  him  as  "deceitful  and  heartless," 
whereas  the  honorable  gentleman  was  only  trying  to  be 
kind.  Meanwhile  the  Senate  is  too  much  interested  in 
immense  claims  involving  millions,  to  be  paid  out  of  the 
National  Treasury,  too  much  absorbed  in  the  discussion 
of  the  universal,  to  be  able  to  come  down  to  the  small 
particular  of  a  poor  widow,  with  hungry  children,  whose 
only  heritage  was  lost  in  the  war.  In  time,  whose 
cycles  may  be  as  long  as  those  of  the  Circumlocution  Of- 
fice and  the  Court  of  Chancery — but  some  time,  when 
the  widow  has  borrowed  and  spent  more  money  than  the 
whole  claim  is  worth,  it  may  be  investigated,  and  full  or 
partial  justice  done.  In  either  case,  it  will  take  more 
than  she  receives  to  pay  the  many  expenses  which  she 
has  incurred  during  her  long  years  of  waiting.  Do  you 
wonder  that  her  face  looks  doleful  while  she  waits  for 

Senator  to  come  in  to  answer  her  card,  sent 

into  the  Senate  Chamber.  Here  he  is  and  we  can  hear 
what  he  says,  "  I  am  very  sorry,  Madame ;  but  it  has 
grown  to  be  too  late.  I  fear  that  your  case  can  not  be 
reached  this  session."  Poor  woman.  It  would  have  been 
better  for  you  to  have  staid  at  home,  kept  out  of  debt, 
worked  with  your  hands  to  have  supported  your  children. 
That  would  have  been  a  hard  life,  but  not  so  hard  as  the 
mortification,  suspense,  and  defeat  of  this,  and  the  long 
years  of  labor  after  all. 

See  that  sharp-faced  woman,  with  darting,  prying  eyes. 
She  rushes  in  one  door  and  out  of  another.  She  hurries 
back.  She  meets  a  senator,  and  "button-holes  him," 
after  the  fashion  of  men,  and  begins  conversing  in  the 
most  importunate  manner.  He  makes  a  retreat.  Lo  !  in 


A    WOMAN   TO   BE    FEARED.  123 

a  moment  she  attacks  another,  leading  him  triumphantly 
to  a  sofa,  where  we  witness  a  tete-a-tete,  on  the  feminine 
side,  carried  on  with  marked  emphasis  and  much  gesticu- 
lation. This  woman  not  only  has  one  claim  in  Congress, 
she  has  many,  and  not  one  her  own.  She  is  a  claim- 
agent,  an  office-brokeress.  She  buys  claims,  and  specu- 
lates in  them  as  so  much  stock.  She  takes  claims  on 
commission,  deluding  many  a  poor  victim  into  the  belief 
that  "my  influence"  and  "my  friends,"  Senator  So- and- 
So  and  Secretary  P.  Policy,  will  insure  it  a  triumphant 
passage  and  a  remunerative  end,  "  without  fail."  It  is 
not  strange,  through  sheer  pertinacity  and  by  dint  of  end- 
less worrying,  she  often  succeeds.  She  is  purely  feline  in 
her  tactics — ever  alert,  watchful,  wary,  cunning,  and  so 
she  worries  her  victims  and  wins.  She  is  one  of  the 
world's  disappointed,  dissatisfied  ones;  so,  more  than  all 
else,  we  will  be  sorry  for  her.  What  God  meant  to  be  a 
fair  life  has  been  striven  away  in  one  weary  struggle  for 
the  worldly  honor  and  conventional  prestige  lying  just 
above  her  reach.  And  to  her  the  most  pleasurable  ex- 
citement in  all  the  claim  profession  is  the  delusion  that 
it  affords  her  of  personal  power  and  of  association  with  the 
great ! 

Pardon  me,  good  friends,  for  calling  a  name.  I  must 
call  it,  for  it  is  true.  Here  comes  a  very  dragon  of  a 
woman.  I  am  as  afraid  of  her  as  if  she  had  horns.  I  was 
going  to  say  that  she  was  a  man-woman,  which  is  the 
greatest  monstrosity  of  the  genus  feminine.  But  I  honor 
my  brethren  too  much  for  such  a  comparison,  and  so  will 
simply  say — in  manners,  she  is  a  dragon.  The  men  whom 
she  seizes  must  think  so  ;  they  give  her  her  way,  because 
they  are  afraid  of  her.  Too  well  they  know  that,  if  they 


124  TEN   TEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

do  not  yield  her  point — if  they  do  not  at  least  promise 
her  their  influence — if  they  do  not  assure  her  that  they 
will  do  all  in  their  power  to  carry  "her  measure' — that 
she  will  attack  them  in  the  street,  in  the  legislative  lobbies, 
in  the  quiet  of  their  lodgings,  everywhere,  anywhere,  till 
they  do.  She  is  no  covert  power.  She  proclaims  aloud 
that  she  has  come  to  Washington  to  carry  a  measure 
through  Congress  to  establish  some  man  in  power.  And 
she  does  it  because  her  tongue  is  a  scourge  and  her  pres- 
ence a  fear. 

Leaning  back  in  a  chair,  no  one  near  her,  you  see  a  fair 
woman,  whose  beautiful  presence  seems  at  variance  with 
the  many  anxious  and  angular  and  the  few  coarse  women 
around  her.  The  calmness  of  assured  position,  the  serene 
satisfaction  of  conscious  beauty,  envelop  her  and  float 
from  her  like  an  atmosphere.  We  feel  it  even  here. 
Plumes  droop  above  her  forehead,  velvet  draperies  fall 
about  her  form.  We  catch  a  glimpse  of  laces,  the  gleam 
of  jewels.  Look  long  into  her  face  ;  its  splendor  of  tint 
and  perfection  of  outline  can  bear  the  closest  scrutiny. 
Look  long,  and  then  say  if  a  soul  saintly  as  well  as  serene 
looks  out  from  under  those  penciled  arches,  through  the 
dilating  irises  of  those  beguiling  eyes.  Look,  and  the 
unveiled  gaze  which  meets  yours  will  tell  you,  as  plainly 
as  a  gaze  can  tell,  that  adulation  is  the  life  of  its  life,  and 
seduction  the  secret  of  its  spell.  This  beauty  would  not 
blanch  before  the  profanest  sight ;  it  is  the  beauty  of  one 
who  tunes  her  tongue  to  honeyed  accents,  and  lifts  up  her 
eyelids  to  lead  men  down  to  death.  She  comes  and  goes 
in  a  showy  carriage.  She  glides  through  the  corridors, 
haunts  the  galleries  and  the  ante-rooms  of  the  Capitol — 
everywhere  conspicuous  in  her  beauty.  All  who  behold 


HOW  PLACE  AND  POWER  ARE  WOX.       125 

her  inquire,  Who  is  that  beautiful  woman?  Nobody 
seems  quite  sure.  Doubt  and  mystery  envelop  her  like 
a  cloud.  "  She  is  a  rich  and  beautiful  widow/'  K  She  is 
unmarried,"  "  She  is  visiting  the  city  with  her  husband." 
Every  gazer  has  a  different  answer.  There  are  a  few, 
deep  in  the  secrets  of  diplomacy,  of  legislative  venality, 
of  governmental  prostitution,  who  can  tell  you  she  is  one 
of  the  most  subtle  and  most  dangerous  of  lobbyists.  She 
is  but  one  of  a  class  always  beautiful  and  always  success- 
ful. She  plays  for  large  stakes,  but  she  always  wins.  The 
man  who  says  to  her,  "  Secure  my  appointment,  make  sure 
my  promotion,  and  I  will  pay  you  so  many  thousands," 
usually  gets  his  appointment,  and  she  her  thousands.  Does 
she  wait  like  a  suppliant  ?  Not  at  all.  She  sits  like  an 
empress  waiting  to  give  audience.  Will  she  receive  her 
subjects  in  promiscuous  assemblage  ?  No  ;  if  you  wait 
long  enough  you  will  see  her  glide  over  these  tessellated 
floors,  but  not  alone.  Far  from  the  ears  of  the  crowd,  in 
rooms  sumptuous  enough  for  the  Sybarites,  this  woman 
will  dazzle  the  sight  of  a  half-demented  and  wholly  be- 
wildered magnate,  and  then  tell  him  what  prize  she 
wants.  With  alluring  eyes  and  beguiling  voice  she 
will  besiege  his  will  through  the  outworks  of  his  senses, 
and  so  charm  him  on  to  do  her  bidding.  He  promises 
her  his  influence ;  he  promises  her  his  power ;  her  fa- 
vorite shall  have  the  boon  he  demands,  whether  it  be  of 
emolument  or  power. 

Thus  some  of  the  highest  prizes  in  the  Government 
are  won.  Unscrupulous  men  pay  wily  women  to  touch 
the  subtlest  and  surest  springs  of  influence,  and  thus 
open  a  secret  way  to  their  public  success.  No  longer 
the  question  is:  Shall  women  participate  in  politics? 


126  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

shall  they  form  a  controlling  element  in  the  Govern- 
ment ?  But,  as  there  are  women  who  will  and  do  exert 
this  power,  shall  it  remain  abject,  covert,  equivocal,  de- 
moralizing., base?  Or  shall  it  be  brave  and  pure  and 
open  as  the  gun  ? 


CHAPTER 
THE  CONGRESSIONAL  LIBRARY. 

Inside  the  Library — The  Librarian — Sketch  of  Mr.  Spofford — How  Congres- 
sional Speeches  are  Manufactured — "  Spofford  "  in  Congress — The  Li- 
brary Building — Diagram — Dimensions  of  the  Hall — The  Iron  Book 
Cases— The  Law  Library— Five  Miles  of  Book  Shelves— Silent  Study— 
"Abstracting  "  Books — Amusing  Adventure — A  Senator  in  a  Quandary — 
Making  Love  under  Difficulties — Library  Regulations — Privileged  Per- 
sons— Novels  and  their  Readers — Books  of  Reference — Cataloguing  the 
Library — The  New  Classification — Compared  with  the  British  Museum — 
Curious  Old  Newspapers — Files  of  Domestic  and  Foreign  Papers — One 
Hundred  Defunct  Journals — Destruction  of  the  Library  by  English 
Troops— An  Incident  of  the  War  of  1814— Putting  it  to  the  Vote—"  Car- 
ried Unanimously  " — Wanton  Destruction — Washington  in  Flames — A 
Fearful  Tempest  — The  Second  Conflagration  —  35,000  Volumes  Ite- 
stroyed — Treasures  of  Art  Consumed — Congressional  Grants — The  New 
Library — Extensive  Additions — The  Next  Appropriation — The  Grand 
Library  of  the  Nation. 

THE  most  remarkable  fact  of  the  present  connected 
with  the  Congressional  Library,  is  its  Librarian,  Mr. 
Ainsworth  R.  Spofford. 

Mr.  Spofford  was  appointed  Assistant  Librarian  by 
President  Lincoln,  December  31,  1864,  and  upon  the 
resignation  of  Mr.  Stephenson  the  same  month  succeeded 
him  as  Librarian.  Mr.  Spofford  was  formerly  connected 
with  the  secular  press  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  and  was  also 
engaged  in  the  book  trade  in  the  same  city.  But  neither 
fact  accounts  for  his  almost  unlimited  practical  knowledge 
of  books  of  every  age  and  in  every  language.  He  is  him- 


128  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

self  a  vast  library  in  epitome.  If  you  wish  to  inform 
yourself  upon  any  subject  under  the  sun,  if  you  have  any 
right  or  privilege  to  inform  Mr.  Spoffbrd  of  that  fact,  in 
five  minutes  you  will  have  placed  before  you  a  list,  writ- 
ten down  rapidly  from  memory,  of  the  best  works  extant 
upon  the  subject  named,  and  in  as  few  moments  as  it  will 
take  to  find  them,  and  draw  them  forth  from  their  dusty 
nests,  you  will  have  them  all  heaped  on  a  table  before 
you,  ready  for  your  search  and  research,  and  all  the  head- 
aches they  will  be  sure  to  give  you. 

Mr.  Spofford  has  the  credit  among  experts  of  writing 
many  Congressional  speeches  for  honorable  gentlemen 
whose  verbs  and  nominatives  by  chronic  habit  disagree, 
and  whose  spelling-books  were  left  very  far  behind  thems 
but  who  nevertheless  are  under  the  imperative  necessity 
of  writing  learned  speeches  of  which  their  dear  constitu- 
ents may  boast  and  be  proud.  By  the  way,  a  lady  in  pri- 
vate life  in  Washington, — a  scholar  and  caustic  writer, — 
used  to  earn  all  her  pin  money,  before  her  ship  of  fortune 
came  in,  by  writing,  in  the  solitude  of  her  room,  the 
learned,  witty  and  sarcastic  speeches  which  were  thun- 
dered in  Congress  the  next  day,  by  some  Congressional  Ju- 
piter, who  could  not  have  launched  such  a  thunder-bolt  to 
have  saved  his  soul  had  it  not  been  first  forged  and  elec- 
trified by  a  woman.  The  Librarian  of  Congress  is  too 
much  absorbed  by  his  routine  labors  to  have  much  time 
or  strength  to  spare  for  the  writing  out  of  Congressional 
speeches.  But  daily  and  almost  hourly  he  suggests  and 
supplies  the  materials  for  such  speeches.  When  a  mem- 
ber whose  erudition  is  not  remarkable,  stands  up  in  his 
seat,  backing  every  sentence  he  utters  on  finance,  law 
or  politics,  by  great  authority,  more  than  one  mentally 


THE  SECRET  FIRE  OF  MANY  SPEECHES. 


129 


exclaims,  "  Spofford !  "  We  know  where  he  has  been. 
Mr.  Spofford  is  a  slight  gentleman  in  the  prime  of  life,  of 
nervous  temperament  with  very  straight,  smooth  hair, 
classic  features  and  a  placid  countenance.  Always  a 
gentleman,  his  patience  and  urbanity  are  inexhaustible, 
if  you  have  the  slightest  claim  upon  his  care.  If  you 
have  not,  and  he  has  no  intention  of  being  "  bothered," 
his  "  shoo  fly  "  capabilities  are  equally  effectual.  Like 
most  book-people,  Mr.  Spofford's  nervous  life  far  outruns 
his  material  forces.  He  needs  more  sunshine,  air  and 
out-of-door  existence,  as  most  Americans  do.  Therefore 
I  here  cast  him.  a  crumb  of  sisterly  counsel,  born  of  grati- 
tude and  selfishness.  Spend  more  time  on  the  Rock 
Creek  and  Piney  Branch  roads,  on  the  hills  and  by  the 
«ea,  Mr.  Spofford.  Then  may  you  live  long,  prosper,  and 
grow  wiser,  for  the  sake  of  my  books,  and  everybody's ! 
The  halls  of  the  Library  of  Congress  are  among  the 
most  chaste,  unique  and  indestructible  of  all  the  halls  of 
the  Capitol.  The  Library  occupies  the  entire  central 
portion  of  the  western  front  of  the  original  Capitol.  The 
west  hall  extends  the  entire  length  of  the  western  front 
flanked  by  two  other  halls,  one  on  the  north  the  other  on 
the  south  side  of  the  projection. 

DIAGRAM   OF   THE   LIBRARY   OF   CONGRESS. 


Vestibule. 
Door. 

-J 

1 

W«»t  Hall  of  Library. 

1 

130  TEN   TEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

The  west  hall  which  a  few  years  since  made  the  whole 
Library,  is  91  feet  6  inches  in  length,  34  feet  wide  and 
38  feet  high,  the  other  two  halls  of  the  same  hight  are 
29  feet  6  inches  wide  and  95  feet  long.  The  halls  are 
lighted  by  windows  looking  out  upon  the  grounds  of 
the  Capitol  and  by  roof  lights  of  stained  glass.  The 
ceiling  is  iron  and  glass,  and  rests  on  foliated  iron  brack- 
ets each  weighing  a  ton.  The  pilasters  and  panels  are  of 
iron  painted  a  neutral  hue  tinged  with  pale  green  and 
burnished  with  gold  leaf.  The  floors  are  of  tessellated 
black  and  white  marble.  The  iron  book-cases  on  either 
side  rise  story  on  story,  floored  with  cast-iron  plates,  pro- 
tected by  railings,  and  traversed  by  light  galleries.  In- 
cluding the  Law  Library,  these  halls  contain  26,148  feet, 
or  nearly  five  miles  of  book-shelving,  and  contain  over 
210,000  volumes.  The  iron  floors  are  covered  with 
kamptulicon  floor  cloth,  a  compound  of  India-rubber  and 
cork,  which  possesses  the  triple  advantage  of  being  clean, 
light  and  cheap.  The  leg  of  every  chair  has  a  pad  of 
solid  India-rubber  under  it.  Nobody  is  allowed  to  speak 
above  a  whisper ;  thus  the  stolid  turning,  or  the  light  flut- 
ter of  leaves  make  the  only  sound  which  stirs  the  silence. 
Alcove  after  alcove  line  the  halls,  but  with  the  excep- 
tion of  two  devoted  to  novels  and  other  light  reading, 
left  open  for  the  ladies  of  members'  families,  they  are 
all  securely  locked  and  protected  by  a  net-work  of  wire, 
and  thus  the  chance  of  pilfering  and  of  flirting  are  both 
shut  in  behind  that  securely  fastened  little  padlock. 

Before  the  era  of  locking  up,  many  books  were 
"  abstracted "  from  the  Library  and  never  returned. 
And  it  is  said  that  the  alcoves  were  used  during  the  ses- 
sions of  Congress  by  the  belles  of  the  Capitol  for  recep- 


THE  CENTRAL  BOOM,  CONGRESSIONAL  LIBRARY. 
INSIDE  THE  CAPITOL.— WASHINGTON. 


LOYE    IN    THE    LIBRARY.  131 

tion  rooms  in  which  they  received  homage  and  listened 
to  marriage  proposals.  The  story  is  told  of  "a  wealthy 
Southern  representative  gleaning  materials  for  a  speech 
in  an  upper  section/'  who  was  suddenly  stopped  in  his 
pursuit  after  knowledge  above  by  the  knowledge  ascend- 
ing from  below  that  "a  penniless  adventurer"  was  that 
moment  persuading  his  pretty  daughter  to  elope  in  the 
alcove  under  him.  It  did  not  take  the  parent  long  to  de- 
scend into  that  alcove.  The  daughter  did  not  elope. 

The  halls  are  lined  with  wide  tables  and  arm-chairs 
provided  for  all  who  wish  to  make  use  of  the  treasures 
of  the  Library.  Tickets  with  blanks  can  be  filled  with 
the  name  of  any  book  desired,  over  the  signature  of  the 
applicant,  who  retains  the  book  while  remaining  in  the 
Library.  On  the  back  of  those  tickets  are  printed  the 
following  regulations  of  the  Library  : 

1.  Visitors  are  requested  to  remove  their  hats. 

2.  No  loud  talking  is  permitted, 

3.  No  readers  under  sixteen  years  of  age  are  permitted. 

4.  No  book  can  be  taken  from  the  Library. 

5.  'Keaders    are   required   to  present  tickets  for   all  books 
wanted,  and  to  return  their  books  and  take  back  their  tickets 
before  leaving  the  Library. 

6.  No  reader  is  allowed  to  enter  the  alcoves. 

No  books  can  be  taken  out  of  the  Library  except  on 
the  responsibility  of  a  member  of  Congress.  Till  within 
a  very  few  years,  books  were  allowed  to  be  taken  by 
strangers  who  presented  a  written  permit  to  do  so  from 
a  Congressional  official.  This  courtesy  resulted  in  the 
destruction  and  loss  of  so  many  valuable  works,  it  had  to 
be  abolished  and  the  stringent  rules  of  the  present  time 


132  TEN   YEARS    IN    WASHINGTON. 

established  and  strictly  enforced.  An  act  of  Congress 
provided  that  books  can  be  taken  out  of  the  Library  only 
by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  Members  of  the 
Cabinet,  Judges  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
Members  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives, 
Secretary  of  the  Senate,  Clerk  of  the  House  and  mem- 
bers of  the  Diplomatic  Corps.  This  privilege  of  course 
includes  the  families  of  these  official  gentlemen.  £ 

Forgetting  this  fact,  the  long  list  of  story-books  and 
new  novels  often  "  charged"  to  these  State  names  would 
be  something  ridiculous.  Dealers  in  light  literature  suffer 
somewhat  from  this  privilege.  The  copyright  law  and 
the  Congressional  Library  together  provide  society  and 
State  with  all  the  surface  literature  that  they  want  during 
their  sojourn  in  Washington.  For  reference  the  books 
are  most  extensively  and  thoroughly  used  by  all  seekers 
after  knowledge.  American  and  foreign  authors  line  the 
tables  in  these  quiet  halls  daily,  and  the  results  of  their 
research  are  usually  given  to  the  world.  Legal,  political, 
and  historical  works  are  the  ones  most  constantly  called 
for  and  searched. 

From  1815  to  1864  the  Library  was  catalogued  on  the 
system  adopted  by  Mr.  Jefferson  according  to  Bacon's 
Division  of  Science.  This  classification  adapted  to  a  small 
library  was  inadequate  to  the  necessities  of  thousands  of 
consulting  readers.  Mr.  Spofford,  on  his  advent  as  Libra- 
rian, went  to  work  to  simplify  the  system.  The  result  was 
a  complete  catalogue  of  all  the  books  in  the  great  Library 
arranged  alphabetically  under  the  heads  of  authors.  A 
proof  of  the  perfection  of  this  arrangement  is,  that  any 
book  hidden  in  the  farthest  corner  of  the  most  distant 
alcove  is  handed  to  a  reader  at  the  tables  within  five 


BARBARIANS    AT   WASHINGTON.  133 

minutes  after  his  application,  while  in  the  British  Museum 
he  would  do  well  if  he  got  it  in  the  space  of  half  an  hour. 

Till  the  reign  of  Mr.  Spofford,  newspapers,  as  valuable 
documentary  history,  had  almost  been  ignored  by  the 
guardians  of  the  Library.  This  great  defect  Mr.  Spofford 
has  done  much  to  eradicate  and  remedy.  Files  of  all  the 
leading  New  York  dailies  are  now  regularly  kept.  Some 
unbroken  files  have  been  secured,  including  those  of  the 
New  York  Evening  Post,  from  its  beginning  in  1801,  the 
London  Gazette  from  1665,  the  French  Moniteur  (Royal, 
Imperial,  and  Republican,)  from  1789,  the  Illustrated 
London  Neios,  the  Almanac  de  Gotha  from  1776,  and  a 
complete  set  of  every  newspaper  ever  published  in  the 
District  of  Columbia,  including  over  one  hundred  now 
no  more.  Before  the  last  progressive  regime,  even  after 
Congress  had  appropriated  $75,000  for  the  replenishing 
of  the  Library,  the  entire  national  collection  did  not  con- 
tain a  modern  encyclopedia,  or  a  file  of  a  New  York  daily 
newspaper,  or  of  any  newspaper  except  the  venerable 
Washington  National  Intelligencer.  De  Sow's  Review* 
was  the  only  American  magazine  taken,  "  but  the  Lon- 
don Court  Journal  was  regularly  received,  and  bound  at 
the  close  of  each  successive  year !  " 

The  Congressional  Library  is  the  only  one  in  the 
world  utterly  fire-proof,  without  an  atom  of  wood  or  of 
any  combustible  material  in  its  miles  of  shelving.  Before 
it  attained  to  this  indestructible  state  it  suffered  much. 
First  from  the  British.  On  the  evening  of  August  24, 
1814,  after  the  battle  of  Bladensburg,  General  Ross  led 
his  victorious  troops  into  the  Federal  City.  As  they  ap- 
proached the  Capitol  a  shot  was  fired  by  a  man  concealed 
in  a  house  on  Capitol  Hill.  The  shot  was  aimed  at  the 


134  TEN   YEAKS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

British  general,  but  only  killed  his  horse.  The  enraged 
Britons  immediately  set  fire  to  the  house  which  contained 
the  sharp-shooter,  who,  it  is  said,  was  a  club-footed  gar- 
dener-barber Irishman.  The  unmanageable  troops  were 
drawn  up  in  front  of  the  unfinished  Capitol,  a  wooden 
scaffolding,  occupying  the  place  of  the  Rotunda,  joining 
the  two  wings.  They  first  fired  a  volley  into  the  windows 
and  then  entered  the  building  to  prepare  it  for  destruc- 
tion. Admiral  Cockburn  ascended  to  the  Speaker's  chair, 
and  derisively  exclaimed : 

"  Shall  this  harbor  of  Yankee  Democracy  be  burned  ? 
All  for  it  say  <Aye!'" 

It  was  carried  unanimously,  and  the  torch  of  the  Eng- 
lishman applied  to  the  hard-earned  treasures  of  the  young 
Republic.  The  Library  of  Congress,  used  as  lighting  pa- 
per, was  entirely  destroyed.  With  it,  two  pictures  of  na- 
tional value  were  burned ;  portraits  of  Louis  XVI.  and 
Marie  Antoinette,  which,  richly  framed,  had  been  sent  to 
the  United  States  Government  in  Philadelphia,  by  the 
.unfortunate  French  King. 

While  the  Capitol  was  burning,  clouds  and  columns  of 
fire  and  smoke  were  ascending  from  the  President's 
house  and  all fc the  other  public  buildings  of  the  young 
city.  The  conflagration  below  was  dulled  by  the  confla- 
gration above  ;  one  of  the  most  dreadful  storms  of  thun- 
der and  lightning  ever  known  in  Washington,  met  and 
lighted  on  the  British  invaders,  dimming  and  quenching 
their  malicious  fires. 

In  1851  the  magnificent  new  library-room  of  the  Central 
Capitol,  which  now  held  55,000  volumes  and  many  works 
of  art,  was  discovered  to  be  on  fire.  The  destruction  was 
immense.  Thirty-five  thousand  volumes  were  destroyed. 


THE   LIBRARY   IN   FLAMES.  135 

Among  the  valuable  pictures  burned  at  the  same  time  were 
Stuart's  paintings  of  the  first  five  Presidents ;  an  original 
portrait  of  Columbus ;  a  second  portrait  of  Columbus ; 
an  original  portrait  of  Peyton  Randolph ;  a  portrait  of 
Boliver ;  a  portrait  of  Baron  Steuben  ;  one  of  Baron  de 
Kalb  ;  one  of  Cortez,  and  one  of  Judge  Hanson,  of  Mary- 
land, presented  by  his  family.  Between  eleven  and  twelve 
hundred  bronze  medals  of  the  Vattemare  Exchange,  some 
of  them  more  than  two  centuries  old,  were  destroyed ; 
also,  an  Apollo  in  bronze,  by  Mills;  a  very  superior 
bronze  likeness  of  Washington ;  a  bust  of  General  Taylor, 
by  an  Italian  artist ;  and  a  bust  of  Lafayette,  by  David. 

The  divisions  of  Natural  History,  Geography,  and 
Travels,  English  and  European  History,  Poetry,  Fiction, 
and  the  Mechanic  Arts  and  Fine  Arts  were  all  burned. 
The  whole  of  the  Law  Library  escaped  the  fire. 

It  indicates  the  intellectual  vitality  of  the  nation  that 
an  appropriation  of  $10,000  was  immediately  made  for 
the  restoration  of  the  Library,  and  by  the  close  of  the 
year  $75,000  more  for  the  same  purpose. 

Like  most  beginnings,  that  of  the  Congressional  Library 
was  humble  in  the  extreme.  The  first  provision  for  this 
great  National  collection  was  made  at  Philadelphia  by  an 
act  of  the  Sixth  Congress,  April  24,  1800,  appropriating 
$5,000  for  a  suitable  apartment  and  the  purchase  of 
books  for  the  use  of  both  Houses  of  Congress.  The  first 
books  received  were  forwarded  to  the  new  seat  of  Govern- 
ment in  the  trunks  in  which  they  had  been  imported. 
President  Jefferson,  from  its  inception,  an  ardent  friend 
of  the  Library,  called  upon  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate, 
Samuel  Allyne  Otis,  to  make  a  statement  on  the  first  day 
of  the  session,  December  7,  1801,  respecting  the  books, 


136  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

the  act  of  Congress  having  provided  that  the  Secretary  of 
the  Senate,  with  the  Clerk  of  House  of  Representatives, 
should  be  the  purchasers  of  the  books.  The  Congressional 
provision  for  the  Library  in  1806  was  $450.00. 

In  a  report  made  by  Doctor  Samuel  Latham  Mitchell 
from  New  York  to  the  House,  January  20,  1806,  he  says: 

"  Every  week  of  the  session  causes  additional  regret  that  the 
volumes  of  literature  and  science  within  the  reach  of  the  Na- 
tional Legislature  are  not  more  rich  and  ample.  The  want  of 
geographical  illustration  is  truly  distressing,  and  the  deficiency 
of  historical  and  political  works  is  scarcely  less  severely  felt." 

President  Madison  always  exercised  a  fostering  care 
over  the  Library  and  an  act  approved  by  him,  December 
6, 1811,  appropriates,  for  five  additional  years,  the  sum  of 
one  thousand  dollars  annually  for  its  use. 

The  whole  number  of  books  accumulated  in  fourteen 
years,  from  1800  to  1814,  amounted  only  to  about  three 
thousand  volumes.  The  growth  of  the  Library  may  be 
traced  in  the  relative  sums  appropriated  to  its  benefit 
by  successive  Congresses.  In  1818,  $2,000  were  appro- 
priated for  the  purchase  of  books.  From  1820  to  1823, 
$6,000  were  voted  to  buy  books. 

In  1824,  $5,000  were  appropriated  for  the  purchase  of 
books  under  the  Joint  Committee;  also  $1,546  for  the 
purchase  of  furniture  for  the  new  Library  in  the  centre 
building  of  the  Capitol. 

The  yearly  appropriation  for  the  increase  of  the  Li- 
brary, for  many  successive  years  after  the  accession  of 
General  Jackson,  was  $5,000 ;  these  were  exclusive  of 
the  appropriations  made  for  the  Law  Department  of  the 
Library.  In  1832  an  additional  appropriation  of  $3,000 


NATIONAL    PURCHASES.  137 

was  made  for  Library  furniture  and  repairs.  In  1850 
the  annual  appropriation  of  $1,000  to  purchase  books 
for  the  Law  Library  was  increased  to  $2,000.  Within  a 
year  of  the  burning  of  the  Library  in  1851,  $85,000  had 
been  voted  by  Congress  for  the  restoration  of  the  Library 
and  the  purchase  of  books. 

The  west  hall  of  the  New  Library  was  completed  and 
occupied  July  1,  1853.  It  was  designed  by  Thomas  A. 
Walter,  the  architect  of  the  Capitol.  The  appropriation 
for  miscellaneous  books  alone  in  the  years  1865  and  1866 
amounted  to  $16,000.  In  1866,  $1,500  were  set  apart 
for  procuring  files  of  leading  American  newspapers,  and 
the  sum  of  $4,000  was  voted  June  25,  1864,  to  purchase 
a  complete  file  of  selections  from  European  periodicals 
from  1861  to  1864  relating  to  the  Rebellion  in  the  Uni- 
ted States.  July  23,  1866,  the  amount  of  $10,000  was 
voted  by  Congress  for  furniture  for  the  two  wings  of  the 
extension.  The  present  magnificent  halls  of  the  Library 
of  Congress  were  built  at  an  expense  of  $280,500.  The 
main  hall  cost  $93,500,  and  the  other  two  halls  $187,000. 
The  last  two  have  been  built  under  the  superintendence 
of  Mr.  Edward  Clark.  Beautiful  and  ample  as  these  three 
halls  are  in  themselves,  they  are  already  too  small  to 
hold  the  rapidly  accumulating  treasures  of  the  Library. 

The  next  appropriation  will  take  the  Congressional 
Library  out  of  the  Capitol  altogether  into  a  magnificent 
building,  built  expressly  for  and  devoted  exclusively 
to  the  uses  of  the  Grand  Library  of  the  Nation. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

A  VISIT  TO  THE  NEW  LAW  LIBRARY. 

How  a  Library  was  Offered  to  Congress — Mr.  King's  Proposal — An  Eye  to 
Theology — The  Smithsonian  Library  Transferred — The  Good  Deeds  of 
Peter  Force — National  Documents — "American  Archives" — Congress 
Makes  a  Wise  Purchase — Eliot's  Indian  Bible — Literary  Treasures — The 
Lawyers  Want  a  Library  for  Themselves — Their  "  Little  Bill  "  Fails  to 
Pass — They  are  Finally  Successful — The  Finest  Law  Library  in  the 
World— First  Edition  of  Blackstone— Report  of  the  Trial  of  Cagliostro, 
Rohan  and  La  Motte — Marie  Antoinette's  Diamond  Necklace — A  Long 
Life-Service — The  Law  Library  Building — An  Architect  Buried  Be- 
neath his  own  Design — "  Underdone  Pie-crust " — "  Justice"  Among  the 
Books — Reminiscence  of  Daniel  Webster  and  the  Girard  Will. 

A  LITTLE  more  than  a  month  after  the  burning  of 
-£\.  the  Library  by  the  British  in  1814,  a  letter  was 
read  in  the  Senate,  from  Thomas  Jefferson  at  Monticello, 
tendering  to  Congress  the  purchase  of  his  library  of  nine 
thousand  volumes. 

The  collection  of  this  library  had  been  the  delight  of 
Mr.  Jefferson's  life,  and,  long  before,  he  had  written  of  it 
as  "  the  best  chosen  collection  of  its  size  probably  in 
America."  Pecuniary  embarrassments  had  already  begun 
to  cloud  his  closing  years,  and  the  double  hope  of  reliev- 
ing these,  and  of  adding  to  the  treasures  of  his  beloved 
Republic,  impelled  him  to  this  personal  sacrifice.  In  his 
letter  to  the  Committee  he  said : 

"  I  should  be  willing  indeed  to  retain  a  few  of  the  books  to 
amuse  the  time  I  have  yet  to  pass,  which  might  be  valued  with 


A   LIBRARY    COLLECTED    BY    FORCE.  139 

the  rest,  but  not  included  in  the  sum  of  valuation  until  they 
should  be  restored  at  my  death,  which  I  would  cheerfully  pro- 
vide for."  t 

The  sum  of  $23,950  in  Treasury  notes,  of  the  issue 
ordered  by  the  law  of  March  4, 1814,  was  paid  him.  The 
actual  number  of  volumes  thus  acquired  was  6,700.  Al- 
though a  Mr.  King,  of  Massachusetts,  more  burdened  with 
zeal  than  knowledge,  made  a  motion  which  called  out  a 
loud  and  long  debate,  that  all  books  of  an  atheistical, 
irreligious,  and  immoral  tendency  should  be  extirpated 
from  the  Library  and  sent  back  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  the  de- 
partment of  Theology  in  his  library  was  found  to  be  large, 
sound,  and  valuable. 

In  1866  the  custody  of  the  Library  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  with  the  agreement  of  the  Regents,  was  trans- 
ferred to  the  Library  of  Congress.  It  brought  forty 
thousand  additional  volumes  to  the  Congressional  Library. 

When  you  come  to  Washington,  you  will  see  in  the  gal- 
lery of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  the  bust  of  a  noble  man 
standing  on  a  simple  plaster  column,  bearing  the  name 
PETER  FORCE.  He,  during  his  life,  did  more  than  any  one 
American  to  rescue  from  oblivion  the  early  documentary 
history  of  the  United  States.  He  came  from  his  native 
city,  New  York,  to  Washington,  as  a  printer,  in  1815.  In 
1820  he  began  the  publication  of  the  National  Calendar, 
an  annual  volume  of  national  statistics,  and  also  published 
the  National  Journal,  the  Administration  organ  during 
the  Presidency  of  John  Quincy  Adams.  In  1833  the 
Government  entered  into  a  contract  with  Mr.  Force  to 
prepare  and  publish  a  "Documentary  History  of  the 
American  Colonies."  Nine  volumes  subsequently  ap- 
peared under  the  title  of  the  "  American  Archives."  In 


140  TEN  TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

preparing  this  work,  Mr.  Force  gathered  a  collection  of 
books,  manuscripts,  and  papers  relating  to  American  His- 
tory, unequalled  by  any  private  collection  in  the  world. 
At  the  request  of  the  Joint  Library  Committee  of  the 
Thirty-ninth  Congress,  Mr.  SpofFord,  the  Librarian,  entered 
into  a  thorough  examination  of  the  Force  Library.  After 
spending  from  two  to  three  hours  per  day  on  it  for  two 
months,  he  presented  to  Congress  an  exhaustive  classified 
report  of  its  treasures,  which  resulted  in  the  purchase  of 
the  entire  Force  Library  by  the  Joint  Library  Committee 
for  the  sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  the  sum 
offered  by  the  New  York  Historical  Society  for  the  same 
collection.  It  occupies  the  South  Hall  of  the  Congres- 
sional Library. 

Before  this  purchase,  the  largest  and  most  complete  col- 
lection of  books  relating  to  America  was  tucked  away  on 
the  shelves  of  the  British  Museum.  Among  the  treasures 
of  the  Force  Library  is  a  perfect  copy  of  Eliot's  Indian 
Bible,  the  last  copy  of  which  sold  brought  $1,000  ;  forty- 
one  different  works  of  Cotton  and  Increase  Mather,  printed 
at  Boston  and  Cambridge,  from  1671  to  1735  ;  complete 
files  of  the  leading  journals  of  Massachusetts,  New  York, 
Pennsylvania,  Virginia,  and  other  States,  from  1735  to 
1800,  with  245  bound  volumes  of  American  newspapers 
printed  prior  to  1800 ;  and  these  make  but  a  small  pro- 
portion of  its  priceless  historical  wealth. 

February  18,  1816,  a  bill  was  introduced  in  the  Senate 
to  establish  a  Law  Library  at  the  Seat  of  frovernment,  for 
the  use  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  It 
passed  that  body,  but  never  went  into  effect,  from  the  non- 
action  of  the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  bill.  July 
14,  1832,  [Andrew  Jackson,  President,]  a  bill  was  ap- 


THE    SERVICE    OF   A   LIFE-TIME.  141 

proved,  entitled,  "  An  Act  to  increase  and  improve  the 
Law  Department  of  the  Library  of  Congress,"  which,  in 
its  four  sections,  contained  the  following  provisions  : 

"  For  the  present  year  a  sum  not  exceeding  five  thousand 
dollars,  and  a  farther  annual  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars  for 
the  period  of  five  years,  to  be  expended  in  the  purchase  of  law 
books." 

The  number  of  law  books  owned  by  the  Library  at 
that  time  was  2,011 ;  639  of  these  belonged  to  the  Jeffer- 
son collection.  From  this  beginning,  within  forty  years 
has  grown  the  finest  law  library  in  the  world.  It  con- 
tains every  volume  of  English,  Irish  and  Scotch  reports, 
besides  the  American ;  an  immense  collection  of  case  law, 
a  complete  collection  of  the  Statutes  of  all  civilized  coun- 
tries since  1649,  filling  one  hundred  quarto  volumes.  It 
includes  the  first  edition  of  Blackstone's  Commentaries, 
an  original  edition  of  the  report  of  the  trial  of  Cagliostro, 
Rohan  and  La  Motte,  for  the  theft  of  Marie  Antoinette's 
diamond  necklace — that  luckless  bauble  which  fanned  to 
such  fury  the  fatal  flames  of  the  Revolution.  When  An- 
drew Jackson  became  President,  in  1829,  he  appointed 
John  S.  Meehan,  a  printer  of  Washington,  the  first  editor 
and  publisher  of  the  Columbia  Star  and  United  States 
Telegraph,  Librarian  of  Congress.  He  continued  in  that 
office  till  the  accession  of  Mr.  Lincoln — a  period  of  thirty- 
two  years.  His  son,  Mr.  C.  H.  W.  Meehan,  relinquished 
his  boy  pageship  under  his  father,  in  1832,  to  be  transfer- 
red to  the  new  Law  Library.  The  lapse  of  forty  years 
finds  this  gentleman  still  the  special  custodian  of  the  Law 
Library.  In  1835  he  was  entrusted  with  the  choice  of 
all  books  purchased  for  the  Library,  which  trust  he  con- 


142  TEN  TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

tinues  to  hold.  He  adds  another  to  the  many  faithful 
and  learned  lives  whose  entire  span  is  measured  by  de- 
voted service  to  the  State,  under  the  shadow  of  the  Capi- 
tol. In  December,  1860,  the  Law  Library  was  removed 
into  the  basement  room  of  the  Capitol,  just  vacated  by 
the  Supreme  Court.  This  room  is  unique  and  beautiful, 
Its  vestibule  is  supported  by  pillars  in  clusters  of  stalks  of 
maize,  with  capitals  of  bursting  ears  of  corn,  the  design 
of  Mr.  Latrobe.  The  chamber  itself  is  of  semi-circular 
form  seventy-five  feet  in  length.  The  arches  of  the  ceil- 
ing rest  upon  immense  Doric  columns.  The  spandrels  of 
the  arches  are  filled  in  with  solid  masonry — blocks  of 
sandstone,  strong  enough  to  support  the  whole  Capitol. 
Their  tragic  strength  springs  from  the  fact  that  the  arch 
above  fell  once,  burying  and  killing  beneath  it  its  de- 
signer, Mr.  Lenthal.  The  plan  of  his  arch  in  proportion 
to  its  height  was  pronounced  unsafe  by  all  who  examined 
the  drawing,  except  himself.  To  prove  his  own  faith 
in  his  theory  he  tore  away  the  scaffolding  before  the 
ceiling  was  dry.  It  fell,  and  he  was  taken  out  hours 
after,  dead  and  mangled,  from  its  fallen  ruins.  It  will 
never  fall  again.  The  tremendous  masonry  which  now 
supports  a  very  light  burden  makes  it  impossible.  The 
Doric  columns  diverge  from  the  centre  to  the  circum- 
ference like  the  radii  of  a  circle.  From  this  centre 
diverge  the  alcoves  lined  with  books  in  the  regulation 
binding,  likened  by  Dickens  to  "underdone  pie-crust." 
On  the  western  wall  near  the  ceiling  is  a  group  in  plas- 
ter, representing  Justice  holding  the  scales,  and  Fame 
crowned  with  the  rising  sun,  pointing  to  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  the  work  of  Franzoni,  the  sculptor  of 
the  History-winged  clock.,  in  the  old  Hall  of  Representa- 


A   ROOM    WHICH    HAS    MEMORIES.  143 

tives.  In  this  room,  Daniel  Webster  made  his  great 
speech  in  the  Dartmouth  College  case,  and  Horace  Bin- 
ney  his  argument  in  the  case  of  the  Girard  Will.  The 
Librarian's  semi-circular  mahogany  desk,  with  its  faded 
green  brocade  draperies,  once  stood  in  the  old  Senate 
Chamber  and  re-echoed  to  the  gavel  of  every  Vice  Presi- 
dent who  reigned  in  the  Senate  from  1825  to  1860. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE  HEAVEN  OF  LEGAL  AMBITION— THE  SUPREME 
COURT  ROOM. 

Memories  of  Clay,  Webster  and  Calhoun— Legal  Giants  of  the  Past- 
Stately  Serenity  of  the  Modern  Court — "  Wise  Judgment  and  Wine- 
Dinners" — The  Supreme  Court  in  Session — Soporific  Influences — A 
Glimpse  of  the  Veritable  "Bench"— The  Ladies'  Gallery— The  Chief 
Justices  of  the  Pasfr— Taney  Left  Out  in  the  Cold— His  Apotheosis- 
Chief  Justice  Chase — Black  Robed  Dignitaries — An  Undignified  Pro- 
cession— The  "  Crier"  in  Court — Antique  Proclamation — The  Consul- 
tation Room — Every  Man  in  his  Proper  Place — Gowns  of  Office — Rem- 
iniscence of  Judge  McClean — "Uncle  Henry  and  his  Charge" — Fifty 
Years  in  Office. 

ONE  of  the  few  rooms  in  the  Capitol  wherein  har- 
mony and  beauty  meet  and  mingle,  is  the  Old  Sen- 
ate Chamber,  now  the  Supreme  Court  Room  of  the  Uni- 
ted States. 

Here  Clay,  and  Webster,  and  Calhoun, — those  giants  of 
the  past,  whom  octogenarians  still  deplore  with  all  their 
remembered  and  forgotten  peers, — once  held  high  con- 
clave. Defiance  and  defeat,  battle  and  triumph,  argu- 
ment and  oratory,  wisdom  and  folly  once  held  here  their 
court.  It  is  now  the  chamber  of  peace.  Tangled  ques- 
tions concerning  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  personal 
happiness  are  still  argued  within  these  walls,  but  never 
in  tones  which  would  drown  the  sound  of  a  dropping 
pin.  Every  thought  is  weighed,  every  word  measured 
that  is  uttered  here.  The  judges  who  sit  in  silence  to 


SUPREME    COURT   ROOM.  145 

listen  and  decide,  have  outlived  the  tumult  of  youth  and 
the  summer  of  manhood's  fiercer  battles.  They  have 
earned  fruition ;  they  have  won  their  gowns — which,  while 
life  lasts,  can  never  be  worn  by  others.  Theirs  is  the 
mellow  afternoon  of  wise  judgment  and  wine-dinners. 

In  the  Court  room  itself  we  seem  to  have  reached 
an  atmosphere  where  it  is  always  afternoon.  The  door 
swings  to  and  fro  noiselessly,  at  the  pull  of  the  usher's 
string.  The  spectators  move  over  a  velvet  carpet,  which 
sends  back  no  echo,  to  their  velvet  cushioned  seats 
ranged  against  the  outer-walls.  A  single  lawyer  argu- 
ing some  constitutional  question,  drones  on  within  the 
railed  inclosure  of  the  Court ;  or  a  single  judge  in  meas- 
ured tones  mumbles  over  the  pages  of  his  learned  decis- 
ion in  some  case  long  drawn  out.  Unless  you  are  deeply 
interested  in  it  you  will  not  stay  long.  The  atmosphere 
is  too  soporific,  you  soon  weary  of  absolute  silence  and 
decorum,  and  depart.  The  chamber  itself  is  semi-circu- 
lar, with  snow  white  walls  and  windows  crimson-cur- 
tained. It  has  a  domed  ceiling  studded  with  stuccoed 
mouldings  and  sky-lights.  The  technical  "  bench  "  is  a 
row  of  leather  backed  arm-chairs  ranged  in  a  row  on  a 
low  dais.  Over  the  central  chair  of  the  Chief  Justice  a 
gilt  eagle  looks  down  from  a  golden  rod.  Over  this  eagle, 
and  parallel  with  the  bench  below,  runs  a  shallow  gallery, 
from  which  many  fine  ladies  of  successive  administra- 
tions have  looked  down  on  the  gods  below.  At  inter- 
vals around  the  white  walls  are  set  brackets  on  which 
are  perched  the  first  four  Chief  Justices — John  Jay, 
John  Rutledge,  Oliver  Ellsworth  and  John  Marshall. 
There  have  been  but  six  Chief  Justices  of  the  Supreme 

Court  since  its  beginning.     Chief  Justice  Taney's  bust 
10 


146  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

for  years  was  left  out  in  the  cold  on  a  pedestal  within 
a  recess  of  one  of  the  windows  of  the  Senate  wing.  It 
was  voted  in  the  Senate  that  it  should  there  wait  a  cer- 
tain number  of  expiatory  years  until  in  the  fulness  of 
time  it  should  be  sufficiently  absolved  to  enter  the  his- 
toric heaven  of  its  brethren. 

One  more  is  yet  to  be  added — the  grand  head  and 
face  of  Chief  Justice  Chase.  The  May  flowers  have 
scarcely  faded  since  he  held  high  court  here  alone.  As 
ever  his  was  the  place  of  honor.  A  crown  of  white  rose- 
buds shed  incense  upon  his  head — placed  there  by  the 
beautiful  daughter  who  crowned  him  in  death,  as  in  life> 
the  first  of  men.  Crosses,  anchors  and  columns  of  stain- 
less blossoms  were  heaped  high  above  his  head.  Here 
in  the  silence  of  death,  for  one  day  and  night,  the  great 
Chief  Justice  held  Supreme  Court  alone. 

During  the  session  of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  hour  of 
meeting  is  11  A.  M.  Precisely  at  that  hour  a  procession 
of  black-robed  dignitaries,  kicking  up  their  long  gowns 
very  high  with  their  heavy  boots,  may  be  seen  wending 
their  way  from  the  robing-room  to  the  Supreme  Court 
room.  They  are  preceded  by  the  Marshal,  who,  entering 
by  a  side-door,  leads  directly  to  the  Judges'  stand,  and, 
pausing  before  the  desk,  exclaims : 

"  The  Honorable  the  Chief  Justice  and  Associate  Jus- 
tices of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States." 

With  these  words  all  present  rise,  and  stand  to  receive 
the  Justices  filing  in.  Each  Justice  passes  to  his  chair. 
The  Judges  bow  to  the  lawyers ;  the  lawyers  bow  to  the 
Judges ;  then  all  sit  down.  The  Crier  then  opens  the 
Court  with  these  words  : 

"  O,  yea  !    O,  yea  !    O,  yea  !      All  persons  having   business 


STRANGE    OLD    FORMS.  147 

with  the  honorable  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  are 
admonished  to  draw  near  and  give  their  attendance,  as  the  Court 
is  now  sitting.  God  save  the  United  States  and  this  honorable 
Court." 

At  the  close  of  this  antique  little  speech,  the  Chief  Jus- 
tice motions  to  the  lawyer  whose  case  is  to  be  argued, 
and  that  gentleman  rises,  advances  to  the  front,  and 
begins  his  argument. 

The  chairs  of  the  Judges  are  all  placed  in  the  order  of 
their  date  of  appointment.  On  either  side  of  the  Chief 
Justice  sit  the  senior  Judges,  while  the  last  appointed  sit 
at  the  farther  ends  of  each  row.  In  the  robing-room, 
their  robes,  and  coats  and  hats,  hang  in  the  same  order. 
In  the  consultation-room,  where  the  Judges  meet  on 
Saturday  to  consult  together  over  important  cases  pre- 
sented, their  chairs  around  the  table  are  arranged  in  the 
same  order,  the  Chief  Justice  presiding  at  the  head.  Both 
the  robing  and  consultation-rooms  command  beautiful 
views  from  their  windows  of  the  city,  the  Potomac,  and 
the  hills  of  Virginia.  In  the  former,  the  Judges  exchange 
their  civic  dress  for  the  high  robes  of  office.  These  are 
made  of  black  silk  or  satin,  and  are  almost  identical  with 
the  silk  robe  of  an  Episcopal  clergyman.  The  gown 
worn  by  Judge  McLlean  still  hangs  upon  its  hook  as  when 
he  hung  it  there  for  the  last  time — years  and  years  ago. 
The  consultation-room  is  across  the  hall  from  the  Law 
Library,  whose  books  are  in  constant  demand  by  the 
lawyers  and  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court.  This  room  is  in 
charge  of  "  Uncle  Henry,"  a  colored  man,  who  has  held 
this  office  for  fifty  years,  and,  at  the  age  of  eighty,  still 
fulfils  his  duties  with  all  the  alacrity  and  twice  the  devo- 
tion of  a  much  younger  man. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE   "MECCA   OF  THE  AMERICAN." 

The  Caaba  of  Liberty — The  Centre  of  a  Nation's  Hopes — Stirring  Reminis- 
cences of  the  Capitol — History  Written  in  Stone— Patriotic  Expression 
of  Charles  Sumner — Raskin's  Views  of  Ornament — Building  "  for  all 
Time  "— "  This  our  Fathers  Did  for  Us  "—The  Parthenon  and  the  Capitol 
Compared — The  Interest  of  Humanity — A  Secret  Charm  for  a  Thought- 
ful Mind— An  Idea  of  Equality— The  Destiny  of  the  Stars  and  Stripes— 
A  Mother's  Ambition — Recollections  of  the  War — The  Dying  Soldier — 
"  The  Republic  will  not  Perish." 

THE  Capitol  of  his  country  should  be  the  Mecca  of 
the  American.  It  is  his  Capitol,  and  his  country's, 
through  such  extreme  cost,  that  he  should  make  pilgrim- 
ages hither  to  behold  with  his  own  eyes  the  Caaba  of 
Liberty.  This  august  building  should  gather  and  con- 
centrate within  its  walls  the  holy  love  of  country. 

In  our  vast  land  the  passion  of  nationality  has  become 
too  much  diffused.  It  has  been  broken  into  the  narrower 
love  bestowed  upon  a  single  State.  It  has  been  bruised 
by  faction.  It  has  been  broken  by  anarchy.  But  within 
the  walls  of  the  Capitol,  every  State  in  the  Union  holds 
its  memories,  and  garners  its  hopes.  Every  hall  and 
corridor,  every  arch  and  alcove,  every  painting  and 
marble  is  eloquent  with  the  history  of  its  past,  and  the 
prophecy  of  its  future.  The  torch  of  revolution  flamed 
in  sight,  yet  never  reached  this  beloved  Capitol.  Its 
unscathed  walls  are  the  trophies  of  victorious  war;  its 


BUILDING   FOR    POSTERITY.  149 

dome  is  the  crown  of  triumphant  freemen;  its  unfilled 
niches  and  perpetually  growing  splendor  foretell  the 
grandeur  of  its  final  consummation.  Remembering 
this,  with  what  serious  thought  and  care  should  this 
great  national  work  progress: 

"  The  hand  that  rounded  Peter's  dome, 
And  groined  the  aisles  of  ancient  Rome, 
Wrought  with  a  sad  sincerity." 

Let  no  poor  artist,  no  insincere  spirit,  assume  to  decor- 
ate a  building  in  whose  walls  and  ornaments  a  great  na- 
tion will  embody  and  perpetuate  its  most  precious  his- 
tory. The  brain  that  designs,  the  hand  that  executes 
for  the  CAPITOL,  works  not  for  to-day,  but  for  all  time. 
It  was  with  a  profound  consciousness,  not  only  of  what 
this  building  is,  but  of  all  that  it  must  yet  be  to  the 
American  people,  that  Charles  Sumner,  that  profound 
lover  of  beauty,  said,  with  so  much  feeling:  "Surely  this 
edifice,  so  beautiful  and  interesting,  should  not  be  opened 
to  the  rude  experiment  of  untried  talent.  It  ought 
not  to  receive,  in  the  way  of  ornamentation,  anything 
which  is  not  a  work  of  art."  In  every  future  work  added 
to  the  Capitol,  let  the  significant  words  of  Ruskin,  the 
great  art  critic,  be  remembered : 

"  There  should  not  be  a  single  ornament  put  upon  a  great 
civic  building,  without  an  intellectual  intention.  Every  human 
action  gains  in  honor,  in  grace,  in  all  true  magnificence,  by  its 
regard  to  things  to  come.  There  is  no  action  nor  art  whose 
majesty  we  may  not  measure  by  this  test.  Therefore,  when  we 
build  a  public  building,  let  us  think  that  we  build  it  for  ever. 
Let  us  remember  that  a  time  is  to  come  when  men  will  say : 
'  See,  this  our  fathers  did  for  us.'  " 


150  TEN    YEABS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Phidias  created  the  Parthenon.  Beneath  his  eyes  it 
slowly  blossomed,  the  consummated  flower  of  Hellenic  art. 
It  has  never  been  granted  to  another  one  man  to  create  a 
perfect  building  which  should  be  at  once  the  marvel  and 
the  model  of  all  time.  Many  architects  have  wrought  upon 
the  American  Capitol,  and  there  are  discrepancies  in  its 
proportions  wherein  we  trace  the  conflict  of  their  opposing 
idiosyncrasies.  We  see  places  where  their  contending 
tastes  met  and  did  not  mingle,  where  the  harmony  and 
sublimity  which  each  sought  was  lost.  We  see  frescoed 
fancies  and  gilded  traceries  which  tell  no  story ;  we  see 
paintings  which  mean  nothing  but  glare.  But  a  human 
interest  attaches  itself  to  every  form  of  noble  building. 
Its  very  defects  the  more  endear  it  to  us,  for,  above  all 
else,  these  are  human.  We  love  our  Capitol,  not  that  it 
is  perfect,  but  because,  being  faulty,  it  still  is  great,  and 
worthy  of  our  reverence.  Its  wondrous  possibilities,  its 
inadequate  fulfilment,  its  very  incompleteness,  but  make 
it  nearer  kin  to  ourselves.  Like  the  friend  tantalizingly 
and  delightfully  faulty,  its  many  shaded  humanity  is  full 
of  varied  charm.  It  has  all  the  secret  ways  of  a  profound 
nature.  We  fancy  that  we  know  it  altogether,  that  we 
could  never  be  lost  in  its  labyrinths ;  yet  we  are  con- 
stantly finding  passages  that  we  dreamed  not  of,  and  con- 
fronting shut  and  silent  doors  which  we  may  not  enter. 
But  the  deeper  we  penetrate  into  its  recesses,  the  more 
positively  we  are  pervaded  by  its  nobleness,  and  the  more 
conscious  we  become  of  its  magnitude  and  its  magnifi- 
cence. 

No  matter  how  we  condemn  certain  proportions  of  the 
Capitol,  it  grows  upon  the  soul  and  imagination  more 
and  more,  as  does  every  great  object  in  art  or  nature. 


NOW   AND   THEN.  151 

Beside,  the  Capitol  is  vastly  more  than  an  object  of  mere 
personal  attachment  to  be  measured  by  a  narrow  indi- 
vidual standard.  To  every  American  citizen  it  is  the 
majestic  symbol  of  the  majesty  of  his  land.  You  may  be 
lowly  and  poor.  You  may  not  own  the  cottage  which 
shelters  you,  nor  the  scanty  acres  which  you  till.  Your 
power  may  not  cross  your  own  door-step ;  yet  these  his- 
toric statues  and  paintings,  these  marble  corridors,  these 
soaring  walls,  this  mighty  dome,  are  yours.  The  highest 
man  in  the  nation  owns  nothing  here  which  does  not  be- 
long equally  to  you.  The  Goddess  of  Liberty,  gazing 
down  from  her  shield,  bestows  no  right  upon  the  lofty 
which  she  does  not  extend  equally  to  the  lowliest  of  her 
sons. 

The  temple  of  Pallas  Athena,  the  stones  of  Venice,  the 
mighty  mementos  of  a  mightier  Mexico  do  not  tell  to  any 
human  gazer  one-half  so  grand  a  story  as  the  Capitol  of 
America  will  yet  proclaim  to  the  pilgrim  of  later  ages. 
In  far-off  time  I  see  it  stand  forth  the  conqueror  of  the 
forgetfulness  and  the  indifference  of  men.  A  solemn 
teacher,  with  stern,  watchful,  yet  silent  sympathy,  it  will 
impart  to  a  proud  people  the  profound  lesson  of  their 
past.  A  loving  mother,  it  will  hold  before  her  living 
children  the  sacred  faces  of  her  dead  for  the  emulation, 
the  reverence,  the  love,  of  all  who  came  after.  In  its 
halls  will  stand  the  sculptured  forms  of  famed  men,  and 
of  women  great  in  goodness,  great  in  devotion,  great  in 
true  motherhood.  Through  sight  and  sympathy,  through 
the  inspiration  of  grand  example,  the  living  woman  as  she 
lays  her  moulding  hand  upon  the  budding  heart  and  ten- 
der brain  of  the  boy-man,  will  rise  to  the  true  dignity  of 
the  wife  and  mother  of  the  Republic. 


152  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

With  psychical  sight  we  see  what  the  Capitol  will  one 
day  be,  to  later  generations ;  by  our  own  heart-throbs, 
we  know  what  it  is  to  ourselves.  Strength  and  depth 
are  in  its  foundations,  power  and  sublimity  in  its  dome, 
and  these  are  ours.  Its  mighty  masses  of  gleaming  mar- 
ble, all  veined  with  azure ;  its  Corinthian  capitals,  flower- 
ing at  the  top  like  a  palm  in  nature ;  its  tutelary  statue  of 
freedom,  are  joys  to  our  eyes  forever.  Serene  Mother 
of  our  liberties,  she  watches  always  and  never  wearies. 
When  the  whole  land  lay  in  shadow,  when  the  blood  of 
her  sons  ran  in  rivers,  when  her  heart  was  pierced  nigh 
unto  death,  in  moveless  calm  she  held  her  steadfast 
shield;  and  gazing  into  her  eyes,  through  the  dimness 
of  tears,  we  read  the  promise  of  peace.  No  matter  where 
darkness  fell,  she  bore  the  sunlight  upon  her  crest.  The 
dying  statesman  asked  to  be  lifted  up  that  his  eyes  might 
behold  her  last.  The  soldier,  who  gave  his  all,  to  perish 
in  her  name,  watched  for  the  sight  of  her  from  afar,  and 
beheld  her  first  with  the  shout  of  joy.  When  the  slow 
river  bore  him  back  wounded  from  battle,  he  strained  his 
eyes  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  Freedom  on  the  dome,  and 
looking  up,  was  content  to  know  that  he  was  dying  for 
her  sake. 

Factions  will  fight  and  fall.  Political  parties  will  strug- 
gle and  destroy  each  other.  The  passions  of  men  are 
but  the  Waves  which  beat  and  break  on  her  feet.  Above, 
beyond  them  all  Freedom  lives  for  evermore.  Because 
she  lives,  Truth  and  Justice  must  survive,  and  the  Repub- 
lic will  not  perish. 


CHAPTER 
THE  CAPITOL— MORNING  SIGHTS  AND  SCENES. 

The  Capitol  in  Spring — A  Magic  Change — "  More  Beautiful  than  Ancient 
Rome  ' ' — Arrival  of  Visitors — A  New  Race — ' '  Billing  and  Cooing  " — 
Lovers  at  the  Capitol — A  Dream  of  Perpetual  Spring — Spending  the 
Honeymoon  in  Washington — Charmingly  "Vernal  "  People — New  Edi- 
tion of  David  Copperfield  and  Dora — "  Very  Young  " — Divided  Affec- 
tions: the  New  Bride — Jonathan  and  Jane — Memories  of  a  Wedding 
Dress — An  Interview  With  a  Bride — "  Two  Happy  Idiots  " — A  Walk  in 
the  City — Utilitarian  Projects — President  Grant — The  Foreign  Ambas- 
sadors— "Beau"  Hickman — An  Erratic  Genius — Walt  Whitman,  the 
Poet — A  "  Loafer  "  of  Renown — Poets  at  Home — Piatt — Burroughs — 
Harriet  Prescott  Spofford — Sumner  and  Chase — Foreign  Attaches  "  on 
the  Flirt  " — Tiresome  Men — Lafayette  Square  in  the  Morning — How  to 
Love  a  Tree — "  He  Never  Saw  Washington." 

WE  rarely  have  spring  in  this  latitude.  Full  pano- 
plied, summer  springs  from  under  the  mail  of 
long  lingering  winter.  We  had  a  fine  yesterday.  From 
my  window  this  morning  lo !  the  miracle  !  my  dear  long- 
timed  friend,  the  maple  across  the  street,  amazes  me  once 
more,  though  I  declared  to  it  last  year  I  never  would  be 
amazed  again.  It  beckons  me,  its  myriad  little  wands  all 
aquiver  with  the  tenderest  green,  and  says:  "  There  now, 
you  can't  help  it !  Again  I  am  a  beauty  and  a  wonder ! " 
No  long  waiting  and  watching  for  slow  budding  blos- 
soms here.  Some  night  when  we  are  all  asleep  there 
is  a  silent  burst  of  bloom ;  and  we  wake  to  find  the  trees 
that  We  left  here,  when  we  shut  our  blinds  on  them  the 


154  TEN   YEAES    IN   WASHINGTON. 

night  before,  all  tremulous  with  new  life,  and  the  whole 
city  set  in  glowing  emerald. 

I  invite  you  to  the  western  front  of  the  Capitol,  to 
stand  with  me  in  the  balcony  of  the  Congressional  Li- 
brary, to  survey  the  city  lying  at  our  feet  within  the 
amphitheatre  of  hills  soaring  beyond,  the  river  running 
its  shining  thread  between.  I  am  quite  ready  to  be- 
lieve what  Charles  Sumner  said  when  pleading  against 
the  mooted  depot  site  on  its  Central  Avenue,  that  this 
city  is  more  beautiful  than  ancient  Rome.  In  itself  it 
is  absolutely  beautiful,  and  that  is  enough ;  and  it  grows 
more  and  more  so  as  the  sea  of  greenery,  which  now 
waves  and  tosses  about  its  housetops,  rises  each  year 
higher  and  higher.  The  Capitol  in  early  spring  and  sum- 
mer is  in  no  wise  the  Capitol  of  the  winter.  Every  door 
swings  wide ;  from  the  doors  in  the  under-ground  corri- 
dors to  the  wondrous  doors,  designed  in  Rome  and  cast  in 
Munich,  which  open  into  the  rotunda.  What  long,  cool, 
green  vistas  run  out  from  every  angle.  You  stand  be- 
neath the  dome ;  but  your  eyes  find  rest  in  the  far  shadow 
of  the  Virginia  hills. 

And  so  many  people  seem  to  have  come  under  the 
great  dome  to  rest.  You  wonder  where  they  could  all 
have  appeared  from.  They  are  not  at  all  the  people  who 
crowd  and  hurry  through  the  corridors  in  winter — the 
claimants,  the  lobbyists,  the  pleasure-seekers  from  great 
cities  who  come  to  spend  the  "  season"  in  Washington. 
Nearly  all  are  people  from  the  country,  the  greater  pro- 
portion brides  and  grooms,  to  whom  the  only  "  season" 
on  earth  is  spring — the  marriage  season.  Pretty  pairs  ! 
They  seem  to  be  gazing  out  upon  life  through  its  portal 
with  the  same  mingling  of  delight  and  wonder  with  which 


SPENDING   THE   HONEYMOON.  155 

they  gaze  through  the  great  doors  of  the  Capitol  upon 
the  unknown  world  beyond.  Early  summer  always  brings 
a  great  influx  of  bridal  pairs  to  Washington.  Whence 
they  all  come  no  mortal  can  tell ;  but  they  do  Come,  and 
3an  never  be  mistaken.  Their  clothes  are  as  new  as  the 
spring's,  and  they  look  charmingly  vernal.  The  groom 
often  seems  half  to  deprecate  your  sudden  glance,  as  if, 
like  David  Copperfield,  he  was  afraid  you  thought  him 
"  very  young."  And  yet  he  invites  you  to  glance  again, 
by  his  conscious  air  of  proud  possession,  which  says  :  "  Be- 
hold !  I  may  be  young — very.  But  I  have  gotten  me  a 
wife;  she  is  the  loveliest  creature  upon  earth."  The 
affections  of  the  lovely  creature  seem  to  be  divided  be- 
tween her  new  lord  and  her  new  clothes.  She  loves  him, 
she  is  proud  of  him  ;  but  this  new  suit,  who  but  she  can 
tell  its  cost.  What  longing,  what  privation,  what  patient 
toil  has  gone  into  its  mouse  or  fawn-like  folds ;  for  this 
little  bride,  who  regretfully  drags  her  demi-train  through 
the  dust  of  the  rotunda  in  summer,  is  seldom  a  rich  man's 
daughter.  You  see  them  everywhere  repeated,  these  two 
neophytes — in  the  hotel-parlor,  in  the  street-cars,  in  the 
Congressional  galleries. 

When  Jonathan  read  to  Jane,  in  distant  Mudville,  the 
record  of  Congressional  proceedings  in  Washington,  in  the 
Weekly  Tribune,  both  imagined  themselves  deeply  inter- 
ested in  the  affairs  of  their  country ;  but  here,  on  the  spot, 
how  small  seem  Tariff,  Amnesty,  Civil  Rights,  and  Ku- 
Klux  bills  beside  the  ridiculous  bliss  of  these  two  egotists. 
They  do  not  even  pretend  to  listen.  But  they  have  some 
photograph  cards,  and  seek  out  their  prototypes  below. 
On  the  whole,  Jane  is  disappointed.  She  was  not  pre- 
pared for  so  many  bald  heads,  or  for  so  much  of  bad  man- 


156  TEN   TEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

ners.  After  all,  not  one  of  these  men,  in  her  mind,  can 
compare  with  the  small  law-giver,  the  newly-found  Ly- 
curgus  by  her  side.  Before  she  became  calm  enough  to 
reach  this  judicial  decision,  she  visited  the  ladies'  dressing- 
room  and  shook  out  her  damaged  plumes. 

"Is  Washington  always  so  dusty  ?  "  she  asked,  with  a 
sigh,  looking  down  on  her  pretty  mouse -colored  dress, 
with  its  piping  decidedly  grimed. 

"Nearly  always,"  I  answered. 

"  Then  how  can  people  live  here  ?  "  she  exclaimed. 

When  she  goes  home,  she  will  tell  that  the  dome  of 
the  Capitol  is  very  high  ;  that  Conkling  looks  thus,  and 
Sumner  so;  But  what  she  will  tell  oftenest  and  longest — 
perhaps  to  her  children's  children — will  be  that  it  was  in 
Washington  she  ruined  her  wedding  dress. 

"I  was  married  yesterday,  and  see  how  I  look!  "  said 
Jane,  ruefully. 

"You  look  very  pretty,"  I  said.  "It  will  all  shake  off" 
Wherewith  Jane  proceeded  to  shake,  to  wash  her  face, 
and  brush  her  curls  over  her  fingers.  I  helped  her  re- 
drape  her  lace  shawl,  and  was  repaid  a  moment  later  by 
her  graceful  pose  in  the  front  seat  of  the  Senate  Gallery, 
her  hand  in  Jonathan's.  It  was  refreshing,  in  the  face  of 
such  a  conglomeration  of  doubtful  wisdom,  to  see  two 
happy  idiots,  if  they  did  not  know  it.  The  city  is  full  of 
Janes  and  Jonathans. 

The  Capitol  grounds  are  lovely  as  the  gardens  of  the 
blessed,  these  hours. 

The  armies  of  violets  which  swarmed  its  green  slopes  a 
month  ago  are  gone,  and  the  dandelions  have  gone  up 
higher,  and  are  now  sailing  all  around  us  through  the 
deep,  still  air.  There  is  a  ripple  in  the  grass  that  invites 


WIRE-PULLING.  157 

the  early  mower.  The  fountains  toss  their  spray  into  the 
very  hearts  of  the  old  trees  that  bend  above  them,  and  on 
the  easy  seats  beneath  their  shadow,  sit  black  and  white, 
old  and  young,  taking  rest. 

These  grounds,  perfect  in  themselves,  utter  but  one  re- 
proach to  the  men  legislating  within  yonder  walls,  and 
that,  because  they  are  not  larger  and  meet  in  .proportion 
to  the  august  Capitol  which  they  encircle.  We  pass 
through  them  out  into  Pennsylvania  avenue — this  great 
and  yet  to  be  fulfilled  expectation.  Broadway  cannot 
compare  with  it  in  magnificent  proportions.  It  is  as  wide 
as  two  Broadways,  and  at  this  hour  of  the  afternoon  its 
turn-outs  are  metropolitan.  Nevertheless^  judged  by  its 
trees  and  houses,  it  has  a  rural,  second-rate  look.  Though 
here  and  there  a  lonesome  building  shoots  up  above  its 
fellows,  its  average  shops  are  shabby  and  small,  and  do 
not  compare  favorably  with  those  of  Third  avenue  in 
New  York.  The  idealistic  Statesmen  of  Washington  and 
Jefferson's  time  modelled  it  to  repeat  the  Unter  der  Lin- 
dens of  Berlin.  As  a  result,  the  ample  rows  of  Lombardy 
poplars  are  defunct,  and  the  Gradgrind  politicians  of  to- 
day have  voted  to  dump  down  a  railroad  "  depot "  in  its 
very  centre,  because  Mr.  Thomas  Scott  wants  it,  and  be- 
cause they  have  free  railroad-passes,  and  a  few  other  little 
perquisites  in  their  pockets.  This,  of  course,  is  very 
shocking  to  say ;  but  then  it  is  much  more  shocking  to 
be  true.  Excepting  Mr.  Sumner,  Mr.  Morrill,  Mr.  Thur- 
man  and  a  few  others,  who  really  care  for  the  future  of 
Washington  and  who  love  this  Capital,  the  remainder 
would,  for  a  sufficient  price,  sell  out  the  entire  city,  Capi- 
tol and  all,  to  monopolies  and  corporations.  But  this 
broad  thoroughfare,  stretching  straight  for  a  mile  be- 


158  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

tween  Treasury  and  Capitol,  with  its  double  drive,  smooth 
as  a  floor,  its  borders  of  bloom,  its  gay  promenades  and 
flashing  turn-outs  has  a  certain  splendor  of  its  own,  of 
which  no  monopoly  can  wholly  rob  it. 

Here  is  the  Grant  carriage,  with  its  plain  brown  linings, 
and  in  it  Mrs.  Grant  and  her  father.  A  light  buggy  flies 
past,  drawn  by  superb  horses,  driven  by  a  single  occupant, 
He  is  the  President — small,  slight,  erect,  smoking  a  cigar. 
The  courtly  equipages  of  the  Peruvian,  Argentine, 
Turkish  and  English  Ministers,  with  liveried  outriders 
and  beautiful  women  occupants,  with  the  no  less  elegant 
establishments  of  American  Senators,  Members  and  citi- 
zens, swell  the  gay  cavalcade  on  this  truly  splendid 
Corso. 

Standing  on  the  curb-stone,  gazing  on  it  with  an  ex- 
pression which  would  have  made  Dickens  wild  till  he 
had  reproduced  it,  stands  Beau  Hickman,  long  a  character 
of  Washington.  He  is  an  old  man,  long  and  lean,  with  a 
face  corrugated  like  a  wizened  apple  and  a  complexion 
like  parchment  or  an  Egyptian  mummy.  His  aspect  is  a 
strange  compound  of  gentility  and  meanness.  His  stove- 
pipe hat,  which  evidently  has  survived  many  a  batter- 
ing, is  carefully  brushed ;  his  standing  collar  is  very  stiff 
and  very  high.  His  vest  is  greyish  white,  his  coat  is  clingy 
and  shiny.  His  faded  pantaloons  have  been  darned,  and 
need  darning  again.  His  toes  are  peering  through  his 
shoes,  and  they  are  down  at  the  heels;  yet  he  carries  a 
foppish  cane  and  wears  his  hat  in  a  rakish  manner.  Beau 
Hickman  was  born  a  Virginia  gentleman,  insomuch  as 
he  still  manages  to  live  without  labor,  it  being  the  pride 
of  his  heart  that  he  never  did  anything  useful  in  his  life. 
He  ekes  out  a  wretched  existence  by  filching  small  sums 


WELL-KNOWN   FACES.  159 

from  friends  and  strangers  for  telling  stories  and  relating 
experiences,  for  which  he  invariably  demands  a  drink  or  a 
supper.  One  of  the  most  miserable  objects  I  ever  beheld 
is  Beau  Hickman  hungry,  hobbling  through  the  Senate 
restaurant,  gazing  at  one  table  and  then  at  another,  at 
the  comfortable  people  sitting  by  them,  filling  their 
stomachs,  not  one  alas  !  asking  him  to  partake. 

Here  with  a  sweep  and  swing,  with  head  thrown  back, 
and  arms  at  rest,  comes  a  man  as  supremely  indifferent 
to  all  this  show  as  the  other  is  abjectly  enthralled  by  it. 
This  man,  slowly  swinging  down  the  Avenue,  is  a  "  cos- 
mos" in  himself.  Locks  profuse  and  white,  eyes  big  and 
blue,  cheeks  ruddy,  throat  bare,  wide  collar  turned  back, 
slouched  felt  hat  punched  in,  a  perfect  lion  apparently 
in  muscle  and  vitality — this  is  Walt  Whitman.  Every 
sunshiny  day  he  "  loafs  "  and  invites  his  soul  on  the 
Avenue,  and  there  are  other  poets  who  do  likewise. 
Here  sometimes  may  be  seen  John  James  Piatt,  now  Li- 
brarian of  the  House  of  Representatives,  with  his  blonde 
hair  and  brown-eyed  wife,  who  is  quite  as  much  a  poet  as 
he  is ;  and  John  Burrough  the  Thoreau  of  the  Treasury 
Department,  gentle  as  one  of  his  own  birds ;  and  William 
O'Connor  whose  poetical  fires  burn  undimmed  within  the 
same  dim  old  walls ;  and,  clad  in  mourning,  Harriet  Pres- 
cott  Spofford,  sweet  poet  and  sweeter  woman.  Here  of 
old  were  seen  the  gigantic  forms  of  Charles  Stunner  and 
of  Chief  Justice  Chase.  When  the  Supreme  Court  is  in 
session,  at  a  certain  hour,  a  company  of  immense  gentle- 
men doff  their  long  black  silk  gowns,  and  slowly  and 
ponderously  wend  their  way  along  the  Avenue,  in  mild, 
dignified  pursuit  of  exercise  and  dinner.  Here,  before 
the  sun  grows  too  hot,  may  be  seen  the  moustached,  ges- 


160  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

ticulating,  voluble  young  attaches  of  the  foreign  embas- 
sies with  the  pretty  girls  of  the  West  End,  who  they  like 
to  flirt  with  but  rarely  marry — which  is  fortunate  for  the 
girls. 

I  cannot  divorce  myself  long  enough  from  this  divine 
day  to  write  about  men.  There  is  not  a  man  on  the  face 
of  the  earth  that  would  not  be  tiresome  if  one  had  to  think 
of  him,  to  the  exclusion  of  this  weather.  To  think  that 
there  are  any  to  be  written  about  when  I  want  to  sit  in  the 
sun  and  do  nothing,  stirs  up  a  perfect  rumpus  between 
desire  and  duty.  I  am  not  so  fond  of  my  duty  that  I 
always  spell  it  with  a  big  "  D,"  or  in  every  emergency  put 
it  foremost.  I  would  like  to  put  it  out  of  sight  some 
times.  Wouldn't  you  ?  But  then  I  cannot.  "  It's  too 
many  for  me,"  as  poor  Tulliver  said  of  his  enemy.  It 
won't  go  out  of  sight,  much  less  stay  there.  Something 
clever  might  have  come  to  me  about  tedious  men  if  I  had 
not  reached  Lafayette  Square  this  morning.  There  is  that 
in  this  new  bloom  so  tender,  so  unsullied,  which  makes 
politicians  seem  paltry,  and  all  their  outcry  a  mockery  and 
an  impertinence.  To  be  sure,  these  green  arcades  in  their 
outer  bound  touch  another  world.  Beyond,  and  above 
them,  floats  the  flag  on  the  Arlington  House.  Below,  the 
windows  of  Charles  Sumner's  home  hint  of  art  and  beauty 
within.  The  abodes  of  famous  men  and  of  beautiful 
women  encircle  all  the  square.  On  one  side  the  white 
cornices  of  the  Executive  Mansion  peer  above  the  trees. 

Almost  within  call  are  men  and  women  whose  names 
suggest  histories  and  prophecies,  all  the  tangled  phe- 
nomena of  individual  life.  Yet  how  easy  to  forget  them 
all  on  these  seats,  which  Gen.  Babcock  has  made  so  rest- 
ful— thank  him.  The  long  summer  wave  in  the  May 


THE    SOUL    OF   A   TREE.  161 

grass;  the  low,  swaying  boughs,  with  their  deep,  mys- 
terious murmur,  that  seems  instinct  with  human  plead- 
ing ;  the  tender  plaint  of  infant  leaves ;  the  music  of  birds ; 
the  depth  of  sky  ;  the  balm,  the  bloom,  the  virginity,  the 
peace,  the  consciousness  of  life,  new  yet  illimitable,  are 
all  here,  just  as  perfectly  as  they  are  yonder  in  God's 
solitude,  untouched  of  man.  If  you  need  help  to  love  a 
tree  read  the  diary  of  Maurice  de  Guerin.  No  one  else, 
not  even  Thoreau,  (whose  nature  lacked  in  depth  and 
breadth  of  tenderness  perhaps  in  the  deepest  spiritual  in- 
sight,) ever  came  so  near  or  drew  forth  with  such  deep 
feeling  the  very  soul  of  inanimate  Nature.  He  felt  the 
soul  of  the  tree,  heard  it  in  the  moaning  of  its  voice  as  it 
stood  with  its  roots  bound  in  the  earth  and  its  arms  out- 
stretched with  a  never-ceasing  sigh  towards  infinity.  But 
why  do  I  speak  of  hiw  1  He  lived  and  died  and  never 
saw  Washington. 


1] 


CHAFFEK 
FAIR  WASHINGTON— A  RAMBLE  IN  EARLY  SPRING. 

Washington  Weather — Sky  Scenery — Professor  Tyndall  Expresses  an  Opin- 
ion— A  Picture  of  Beauty — "A  City  of  Enchantment" — "  My  Own 
Washington" — Prejudiced  Views — Birds  of  Rock  Creek — The  Parson- 
age—A Scene  of  Tranquil  Beauty — A  Washington  May — Charms  of  the 
Season— Mowers  at  Work— The  Public  Parks— Frolics  of  the  Little 
Ones — Strawberry  Festivals — "  Flower  Gathering." 

rilHE  climate  of  Washington  has  a  villainous  reputa- 
-L  tion,  and  at  certain  times  and  seasons  it  deserves  it 
Yet  it  tantalizes  us  with  days  which  prelude  Paradise. 
Under  their  azure  arch,  through  their  beguiling  air,  with 
reluctant  steps  we  enter  winter — the  oozy,  clammy, 
coughing  winter,  which  waits  us  just  the  other  side  of 
the  gate  of  January.  But  they  linger  long — the  pre- 
luding days.  They  seem  reluctant  to  yield  us  to  our  im- 
pending foes — society  and  wet  weather. 

These  are  the  days  of  days,  swathed  in  masses  of  lights 
and  color  unfathomable.  It  is  one  of  the  wonders  of 
Washington  too  rarely  noted — its  sky-scenery.  So  few 
people  take  the  trouble  to  look  at  the  sky  save  to  see  if"  it 
looks  like  rain."  All  that  New  York  can  afford  to  give  to 
tired  mortals  is  a  scanty  slice  of  light  through  which  to 
let  a  glimpse  of  glory  down  upon  its  palaces  and  cata- 
combs of  humanity.  But  across  these  banding  hills,  this 
broad  amphitheatre  of  space,  mass  and  sweep  on,  in  the 


A   SCENE    OP   TKATSTQUIL    BEAUTY.  163 

empyrean,  wave  on  wave  of  polarized  light,  with  a  deli- 
cacy of  tint,  a  depth  of  hue,  an  immensity  of  volume, 
which  no  words  can  portray.  This  vast  sea  of  color  (in 
its  deeps  of  orange,  purple  and  gold,  which  now  trans- 
figure the  twilight  sky,  till  the  Virginia  hills  look  like 
open  gates  to  the  city  of  gold)  Professor  Tyndall,  in  one 
of  his  lectures  on  light,  in  this  city,  said  that  he  had  never 
seen  approached  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  save 
by  the  intense  refractions  of  light  on  the  Alpine  glaciers. 

In  the  autumnal  days,  and  in  the  advancing  spring, 
through  the  blue  spaces  steals  a  tremulous,  ever  hover- 
ing purple,  like  opaline  doves'  necks'  lustre,  penetrating 
all  the  atmosphere  like  the  purple  haze  above  the  hills 
of  Rome,  till  the  yellow  walls  of  Arlington  House,  and 
the  snowy  masses  of  the  Capitol  seem  actually  to  shim- 
mer through  waves  of  amethystine  mist.  Under  such  a 
light,  some  morning,  spring  suddenly  spreads  forth  its 
whole  panoply,  with  a  vividness  of  green,  a  prodigality 
of  foliage  never  seen  in  a  more  northern  latitude.  One 
wide  wilderness  of  unbroken  bloom  sends  up  its  fra- 
grance through  waves  of  purple  yellow  and  azure  light, 
and  then,  till  the  day  when,  without  warning,  summer 
suddenly  transmutes  all  into  molten  brass,  Washington 
in  light  and  color,  in  bloom  and  fragrance,  is  a  city  of 
enchantment. 

Thus  I  have  a  Washington  of  my  own,  dear  friends.  I 
never  find  it  till  some  March  day,  when  in  walking  down 
the  Capitol  grounds  I  discover  that  the  shining  runlets 
on  either  side  of  the  Avenue  have  broken  loose  and  are 
racing  free  through  their  sluices  of  stone,  and  that  all 
the  crocuses  in  the  broad  beds  under  the  trees  are  push- 
ing their  little  yellow  noses  out  of  the  ground.  To  be 


164  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

sure,  they  almost  always  draw  them  back  again  to  get 
them  out  of  the  snow  which  falls  after ;  nevertheless  on 
that  day  I  find  my  Washington.  Then  it  is,  that  just  as 
the  grey  lenten  veil  has  covered  and  extinguished  the 
gay  season  of  the  "  German,"  we  come  unaware  upon 
another  Washington,  which  I  vainly  essay  to  portray  for 
you.  My  season  is  not  fashionable.  No  portrayer  of 
costumes  is  "liberally  paid"  by  "the  most  enterprising 
of  publishers  "  to  describe  the  transcendent  suit  which 
decks  this  season  of  mine.  My  Washington  has  no 
chronicler.  The  scribes  are  all  so  busy  abusing  the  Capi- 
tol, depicting  its  follies  and  its  crimes,  that,  though  they 
have  eyes,  they  see  not,  and  ears,  they  hear  not,  the  sights 
and  sounds  of  this  other  Washington — :fair  Washington, 
outlying,  above  and  beyond  all. 

If  I  could  only  paint  for  you  the  fathomless  purples  in 
which  the  hills  enfold  themselves,  the  wide  glimmering 
rosy  spaces,  reaching  on  and  on ;  or  tell  you  of  the  nations 
of  birds  in  the  Rock  Creek  woods,  which  have  made  there 
a  supreme  haunt  for  naturalists ;  of  its  nations  of  flowers, 
which  beckon  and  nod  from  the  Rock  Creek  and  Piney 
Branch  roads;  the  anemones,  the  arbutus,  the  honey- 
suckle, the  laurel,  the  violets,  the  innocents,  covering 
wide  acres  with  color  and  perfume  ;  of  the  shy  Rock  Creek 
parsonage,  built  of  brick  brought  from  England  more 
than  a  century  ago,  above  whose  trees  the  Capitol  gleams, 
yet  within  whose  porch  you  seem  shut  in  peace  away  from 
this  loud  world,  with  the  bees  droning  in  the  still  warm  air, 
and  humming-birds  drinking  from  the  lilac  cups  ;  with  the 
gentle  Christian  hearts  which  abide  beneath  its  roof  and 
minister  beneath  the  shadow  of  its  venerable  church ; 
if  I  could  paint  all  these  as  they  are,  you  would  care  for 


FLOWER    GATHERING.  165 

my  Washington,  but  as  I  cannot,  I  fear  that  you  never 
will. 

A  Washington  May  is  the  June  of  the  north,  with  a 
pomp  of  color,  an  exuberance  of  foliage,  an  allurement  of 
atmosphere  which  a  northern  June  has  not. 

It  is  May  now.  All  the  ugly  outlines  and  shabby  old 
houses  are  softened  and  covered  with  beneficent  foliage. 
Already  the  mowers  are  at  work  in  the  Capitol  grounds 
and  in  the  little  public  parks,  and  the  sweetness  of  the 
slain  grass  pervades  the  atmosphere.  The  children  are 
everywhere  pretty  things.  Washington  is  full  of  them, 
tumbling  amid  the  flowers  and  in  the  dirt.  It  is  May,  yet 
June,  impatient,  has  reached  across  her  sister,  dropping 
her  roses  everywhere.  Washington  is  one  vast  garden  of 
roses.  It  is  the  hour  of  strawberry  festivals  and  of 

FLOWER    GATHERING. 

Miles  away  from  the  dusty  town, 

Out  in  the  beautiful  June-time  weather, 
The  wind  of  the  south  is  rippling  down, 

And  over  the  purple  hills  of  heather. 

Dim,  in  the  distance,  the  city  walls 

Rise,  like  the  walls  of  a  dreary  prison  ; 
On  the  healing  sward  where  the  sunshine  falls, 

We  stand  'mid  the  flowery  folk  arisen. 

We  watch  their  innocent  eyelids  ope, 

And  below  we  hear  the  river  flowing; 
While  wilting  sweet  on  the  upland  slope 

Lies  the  grass  of  the  early  mowing. 

On  through  the  bees  and  butterflies, 

The  grass  and  the  flowers,  the  hours  are  walking ; 

And  we  seem  to  catch  their  low  replies 
To  the  flowing  waters  forever  talking. 


166  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

We  listen  and  question  the  fathomless  space, 
In  the  deeps  of  its  emerald  silence  lying, 

While  we  watch  the  leaves  turning  face  to  face, 

And  their  lovers — the  winds — wooing  and  sighing. 

And  still,  like  a  dream,  fades  the  dusty  town, 
And  dumb  on  our  ear  dies  its  distant  murmur  ; 

But  the  speech,  in  the  stilly  air  steals  down, 

And  the  fainting  heart  grows  calmer  and  firmer. 

Hearts  that  ache  with  a  wounding  smart, 

Wander  out  from  the  heedless  city ; 
The  human  yearning  on  Nature's  heart 

Is  a  thing  that  God  in  his  love  must  pity. 

Sorrow  and  sin  are  in  the  mart, 
And  greed  and  gain  killing  tender  feeling ; 

Here  we  draw  close  to  the  god  Pan's  heart, 
And  feel  on  owr  hearts  his  touch  of  healing. 

Often  we  ask,  is  there  room  to  grow 

'Neath  the  bands  of  the  earth,  so  hard  and  binding  ? 
The  wisdom  of  life  we  are  fain  to  know ; 

Does  it  ever  pay  for  the  pain  of  finding? 

So,  far  away  from  the  dissonant  town, 
Out  in  the  marvellous  June-time  weather, 

We 'climb  the  hills  to  their  blossoming  crown, 
And  rest  and  gather  our  flowers  together. 

Lo !  we  gather  our  flowers  to-day, 
We  are  like  thee,  O  restless  river — 

We  loiter  for  play  on  our  endless  way- 
While  life,  our  life,  rolls  on  forever. 


CHAPTEE  XIX. 

INSIDE  THE  WHITE  HOUSE— SHADOWS  OF  THE  PAST. 

Haunted  Houses — Shadows  of  the  Past — Touching  Memories — The  Little 
Angela  Born  There — Building  of  the  Presidential  Mansion — A  State  of 
Perpetual  Dampness — Dingy  Aspect  of  a  Monarch's  Palace — Outside  the 
White  House — A  Peep  Inside  the  Mansion — The  Emperor  of  Japan  Su- 
persedes the  Punch-Bowl — The  Unfinished  "  Banqueting  Hall  " — Glories 
of  a  Levee — Magnificent  Hospitalities — A  Comfortable  Dining-Room — 
Interesting  Labors  of  Martha  Patterson — A  Lady  of  Taste — An  Amer- 
ican "  Baronial  Hall" — The  Furniture  of  Another  Generation — A  Valu- 
able Steward — A  Professor  of  Gastronomy — Paying  the  Professor  and 
Providing  the  Dinner — Feeding  the  Celebrities — Mrs.  Lincoln's  Unpopu- 
lar Innovations — Fifteen  Hundred  Dollars  for  a  Dinner — How  Prince  Ar- 
thur, of  England,  was  Entertained — Domestic  Economy — "Not  Enough 
Silver  " — A  Tasty  Soup— The  Recipe  for  an  Aristocratic  Stew — Having  a 
"  Nice  Time  " — Mrs.  Franklin  Pierce  Horrified — "  Going  a  Fishing  on 
Sundays  " — Hatred  of  Flummery — An  Admirer  of  Pork  and  Beans  and 
Slap-jacks — A  Presidential  Reception — Ready  for  the  Festival — "  Such  a 
Bore  !  " — Splendor,  Weariness,  and  Indigestion — Paying  the  Penalty— 
In  the  Conservatory — Domestic  Arrangements — The  Library — Statue  of 
Jefferson — Pleasant  Views — Reminiscence  of  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"  All  houses  wherein  men  hare  lived  and  died 

Are  haunted  houses.    Through  the  open  doors 
The  harmless  phantoms  on  their  errands  glide, 
With  feet  that  make  no  sound  upon  the  floors." 

"  There  are  more  guests  at  table,  than  the.hoata 

Invited;  the  illuminated  hall 
Is  thronged  with  quiet,  inoffensive  ghosts, 
As  silent  as  the  pictures  on  the  wall." 

rpHESE  lines  were  never  truer  of  any  human  habita- 
-L    tion  than  of  the  White  House  at  Washington. 

The  Nation's  House !     The  procession  of  families  which 
the  people  have  sent  to  inhabit  it,  in  moving  on  to  make 


168  TEN  YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

place  for  others,  have  left  memories  behind  which  haunt 
these  great  rooms  and  fill  staircase,  alcove,  and  pictorial 
space  with  historic  recollections.  Here  human  life  has 
been  lived,  enjoyed,  suffered  and  resigned,  just  as  it  is 
lived  every  day  hi  any  house  wherein  human  beings  are 
born,  wherein  they  live  and  die.  Within  its  walls  children 
have  first  opened  their  eyes  upon  this  tantalizing  Me,  and 
hjere  children  have  died,  leaving  father  and  mother  deso- 
late amid  all  the  pomp  of  place  and  state.  In  this  room 
the  hero  Taylor  laid  his  earthly  burdens  and  honors  down ; 
here,  by  this  eastern  window,  stood  a  girl-bride  crowned 
with  beautiful  youth  and  marriage  flowers.  In  this  east 
room  the  supreme  martyr  of  freedom,  white,  still  and  cold, 
received  the  nation  who  wept  at  his  feet ;  hi  this  dun  cham- 
ber a  woman-saint  read  her  Bible  and  communed  with 
God,  while  pardon  crokers  crept  into  secret  door-ways, 
and  passion  and  treason  ran  riot  in  the  great  rooms  which 
she  never  entered. 

The  first  child  born  in  the  White  House  was  the  grand- 
son of  Jefferson — James  Madison  Randolph ;  and  the  last 
child  who  died  here  was  "  Willie  "  Lincoln.  Here,  also, 
President  Harrison,  President  Taylor,  and  Mrs.  Tyler 
passed  through  death  unto  life. 

The  corner  stone  of  the  President's  house  was  laid 
October  13,  1792.  We  have  seen  how  anxious  Jefferson 
was  that  it  should  be  modelled  after  some  famous  modern 
palace  of  Europe.  The  one,  at  last  selected,  was  the 
country  house  of  the  Duke  of  Leinster.  It  was  designed 
by  James  Hoban,  and  open,  though  not  ready  for  occu- 
pancy, in  the  summer  of  1800.  The  house  is  built  of 
porous  Virginia  freestone,  which  accounts  for  the  fact 
of  its  perpetual  dampness,  and  the  more  expensive  fact 


THE  BED  BOOM. 
INSIDE  THE  WHITE  HOUSE WASHINGTON. 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  HOUSE.  169 

that  no  amount  of  money  and  white-lead  can  make  it  a 
dry  and  desirable  abode.  And  yet  it  is  always  pleasant 
and  restful  to  the  sight  when  the  eyes  fall  upon  its  Ionic 
columns,  peering  pure  and  softened  through  the  sea  of 
greenery  which  sways  and  dips  around  it.  One  front 
alone  of  Buckingham  Palace,  cost  more  than  the  entire 
White  House.  Yet,  to  behold  it,  the  palace  is  a  black  and 
ugly  pile,  and  in  simplicity  and  purity  of  outline  bears 
no  comparison  with  the  Nation's  White  House.  This  is 
170  feet  broad  and  86  feet  deep.  Its  north  front  has  a 
lofty  portico  with  four  Ionic  columns  and  a  projecting 
screen  of  three  columns.  Between  these  columns  pass  the 
carriages  which  form  a  perpetual  line  moving  on  and 
round  forever  through  the  gay  season.  The  house  is 
three  high  stories,  with  the  rusticated  basement  which 
reaches  below  the  Ionic  ordonnance. 

The  portico  opens  upon  a  spacious  hall  forty  by  fifty 
feet.  It  is  divided  by  a  row  of  Ionic  columns,  through 
which  we  pass  to  the  reception-room  opposite.  This  is 
the  Red  Room.  Its  light  is  dim  and  rosy.  Its  form  is 
elliptical,  and  its  bow  window  in  the  rear  looks  out  on  the 
park  and  away  to  the  Potomac,  as  do  the  windows  of  all 
the  corner  parlors.  In  this  room  the  President  receives 
foreign  ministers  and  the  officers  of  the  republic.  The 
space  over  the  marble  mantel  is  entirely  occupied  with  a  lif e 
size  painting  of  President  Grant  and  his  family.  We  pass 
through  the  Red  Room  into  the  Blue  Room.  All  is  cool 
azure  here.  The  chairs,  the  sofas,  the  carpet,  the  paper 
on  the  wall,  all  are  tinged  with  the  celestial  hue,  flushed 
here  and  there  with  a  tint  of  rose.  In  the  Blue  Room  the 
President's  wife  holds  her  morning  receptions.  Here,  with 
the  daylight  excluded,  soft  rays  falling  from  the  chandelier 


170  TEN   YEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

above,  flowers  in  mounds  and  vases  everywhere  pouring  out 
fragrance,  surrounded  by  a  group  of  ladies,  chosen  and  in- 
vited to  "  assist,"  decked  in  jewels  and  costly  raiment. 
One  day  of  each  week  of  the  season,  from  three  to  five 
p.  M.,  the  President's  wife  receives  her  critic — the  public. 

The  Blue  Room  opens  into  the  Green  Room,  the  most 
cosy  and  home-like  of  all  the  public  parlors.  It  is  vividly 
emerald,  softly  malachite,  all  touched  and  gleaming  with 
gold.  A  large  mirror  covers  the  space  above  the  mantel. 
Beside  vases  in  the  centre  of  the  marble  mantel-piece 
stands  an  exquisite  clock  of  ebony  and  malachite;  tall 
vases  filled  with  fresh  flowers  rise  from  the  carpet.  On 
the  centre  table  used  to  stand  the  immense  punch-bowl, 
presented  to  the  White  House  by  the  Emperor  of  Japan. 
It  is  now  supplanted  by  a  statue  in  bronze.  The  furni- 
ture is  of  rose-wood,  cushioned  with  brocatelle  of  green 
and  gold,  while  the  same  in  heavy  hangings  are  looped 
back  from  the  lace  curtains  on  the  windows. 

From  the  Green  Room  we  enter  the  famous  East  Room, 
extending  the  entire  eastern  side  of  the  house.  It  is 
eighty-six  feet  long,  forty  feet  wide,  and  twenty-eight  feet 
high.  Three  immense  chandeliers  hang  from  the  ceiling. 
It  has  already  taken  on  the  mellowness,  not  of  age  but  of 
use,  and  in  aspect  bears  no  kin  to  the  unfinished  "  Ban- 
queting Hall "  in  which  Mrs.  Adams  dried  the  family  linen, 
and  Mrs.  Monroe's  little  daughters  played.  Now,  on  a 
levee  night,  the  East  Room  presents  a  sight  never  to  be 
forgotten.  The  enormous  chandeliers  seem  to  pour  the 
splendor  of  noon  upon  the  glittering  and  moving  host  be- 
low. Satins,  velvets,  diamonds,  plumes  and  laces  rise  and 
fall,  and  sway  beside  the  gleaming  gold  lace  of  American 
officers,  and  the  jewelled  decorations  of  Foreign  ministers. 


THE    STATE   DINING-KOOM.  171 

Eight  mirrors  repeat  the  glory  of  the  sights.  Eight  Pres- 
idents, from  their  golden  frames  on  the  wall,  seem  to  gaze 
out  of  the  past  upon  the  feverish  splendor  of  a  new  gen- 
eration. The  most  exquisite  carpet  ever  on  the  East 
Room  was  a  velvet  one,  chosen  by  Mrs.  Lincoln.  Its 
ground  was  of  pale  sea  green,  and  in  effect  looked  as  if 
ocean,  in  gleaming  and  transparent  waves,  were  tossing 
roses  at  your  feet. 

Coming  back  to  the  Red  Room,  we  pass  into  a  narrow 
corridor,  at  the  opposite  end  from  which,  on  either  side, 
open  the  family  and  state  dining-room.  The  state  din- 
ing-room is  a  staid  and  stately  apartment,  touched  equally 
with  new  grace  and  old  tune  grandeur.  Martha  Patter- 
son, the  daughter  of  President  Johnson,  redeemed  it  from 
wreck,  and  instead  of  ruin,  adorned  it  with  the  harmony 
of  her  own  artistic  nature.  The  neutral-tinted  walls  and 
carpet,  the  green  satin  damask  hangings  on  the  windows, 
and  covering  of  the  quaint  furniture,  are  all  her  choice.  An 
antique  clock  and  grim  candlesticks,  from  the  Madison 
reign,  stand  stiffly  on  the  marble  mantels.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  a  pair  of  modern  sideboards,  the  furniture  of 
this  "  baronial  hall,"  solid  and  sombre,  has  descended  from 
the  eras  of  Washington  and  Jefferson. 

The  state  dining-room,  and  its  state  dinners,  are  con- 
trolled entirely  by  "  Steward  Melah,  the  silver- voiced  Ital- 
ian," who  was  graduated  from  the  Everett  House,  the 
Astor  House,  and  the  St.  Charles,  New  Orleans,  to  the 
higher  estate  of  superintending  "  goodies  "  for  the  palates 
of  Diplomatists,  Princes,  and  Members  of  Congress  in  the 
White  House  at  Washington.  The  government  pays 
Professor  Melah  for  his  services,  but  the  President  pays 
for  the  dinners,  and  he  is  expected  to  continue  giving 


172  TEN  YEAES   IN   WASHINGTON. 

them  till  every  foreign  dignitary  and  home  functionary, 
from  the  highest  Diplomat  to  the  most  obscure  Member 
of  Congress,  is  invited.  Mrs.  Lincoln's  presuming  to 
abolish  the  time-honored  but  costly  state-dinner  of  the 
White  House,  increased  her  personal  unpopularity  to  an 
intense  degree. 

The  average  state-dinner  costs  about  seven  hundred 
dollars,  the  special  state  dinner  may  cost  fifteen  hundred 
dollars.  The  one  given  to  Prince  Arthur,  of  England, 
cost  that  sum,  without  including  the  wines  and  other 
beverages.  The  dinner  proper  consisted  of  twenty-nine 
courses.  The  President  puts  a  sum  of  money  into  the 
hands  of  the  steward,  and  his  expenditure  is  supposed  to 
be  in  proportion  to  the  official  rank  and  grandeur  of  the 
invited  guests.  It  is  said  that  Professor  Melah  wrings 
his  hands  in  distress  when  he  is  about  to  set  the  State 
table  for  a  supreme  occasion,  and  exclaims  to  the  lady  of 
the  White  House,  who  may  be  looking  on :  "  Why  Madam, 
there  is  not  silver  enough  in  the  White  House  to  set  a 
respectable  free-lunch  table." 

At  a  state  dinner  the  table  is  always  profusely  deco- 
rated with  flowers,  and  the  "  first  course  "  is  invariably  a 
soup  of  French  vegetables,  which  Miss  Grundy  says  has 
"  ilever  been  equalled  by  any  other  soup,  foreign  or  do- 
mestic." "It  is  said  to  be  a  little  smoother  than  peacock's 
brains,  but  not  quite  so  exquisitely  flavored  as  a  dish  of 
nightingales'  tongues;  and  Professor  Melah  is  the  only 
man  in  the  nation  who  holds  in  his  hands  the  receipt  for 
this  aristocratic  stew."  No  general  conversation  prevails 
at  the  state  dinner.  If  the  lady  and  gentleman  elected  to 
go  in  together  happen  to  be  agreeable  to  each  other,  they 
have  a  "  nice  time."  If  not,  they  have  a  stiff  and  tire- 


THE    PRESIDENT   AT   HOME.  173 

some  one.  Exquisite  finesse  is  needed  to  fitly  pair  these 
mentally  incongruous  diners.  Mike  Walsh  once  horrified 
the  shrinking  and  saintly  Mrs.  Franklin  Pierce  at  a  state- 
dinner  by  the  story  of  his  going  "  a  fishing  on  Sunday ; " 
while  Hon.  Mr.  Mudsill,  of  Mudtown,  has  been  known  to 
regale  dainty  Madame  Mimosa,  of  Mignonnette  Manor, 
between  the  courses,  with  his  hatred  of  flummeries  and 
French  dishes,  and  his  devotion  to  pork  and  beans  and 
slapjacks. 

The  President  and  his  wife  receive  the  guests  in  the 
Red  Room  at  seven  o'clock.  Mrs.  President  is  always 
attired  in  full  evening  dress,  with  laces  and  jewels,  and 
her  lady  guests  likewise,  while  each  gentleman  rejoices  in 
a  swallow-tail,  white  or  tinted  gloves,  and  white  necktie. 
The  President  leads  the  way  to  the  state-table  with  the 
wife  of  the  senator  the  oldest  in  office,  while  Mrs.  Presi- 
dent brings  up  the  rear  of  the  small  procession  with  the 
senatorial  husband  of  the  President's  lady  companion. 
Six  wine  glasses  and  a  bouquet  of  flowers  garnish  each 
plate.  From  twelve  to  thirty  courses  are  served,  and  the 
middle  of  the  feast  is  marked  by  the  serving  of  frozen 
punch.  After  hours  of  sitting,  serving  and  eating,  the 
procession  returns  to  the  Red  Room  in  the  order  that  it 
left  it.  Then,  after  a  few  moments  of  conversation,  it 
disperses, — its  honored  individuals  more  than  once  heard 
to  say  in  private,  "Such  a  bore."  Yet  what  an  ado 
they  would  make .  if  not  invited  to  discover  for  them- 
selves the  tiresome  splendor  and  fit  of  indigestion  attend- 
ant upon  a  state-dinner. 

Leaving  the  state  dining-room  behind,  we  pass  through 
the  western  wing  into  the  conservatory,  one  of  the  largest 
in  the  country.  It  is  a  favorite  resort  for  lady  and  gen- 


174  TEN  TEAES   IN  WASHINGTON. 

tlemen  promenaders  on  reception  days,  lined,  as  it  is,  on 
either  side  with  the  bloom  and  fragrance  of  rare  exotics. 
A  large  aquarium  stands  at  one  end,  and  a  short  passage 
and  flights  of  steps  lead  down  to  a  greenhouse  and 
grapery  filled  with  flowers  and  luscious  fruit.  Three 
other  greenhouses  flourish  in  the  gardens  west  of  the 
mansion. 

The  White  House  contains  thirty-one  rooms.  Except- 
ing the  family  dining-room,  every  one  on  the  first  floor  is 
devoted  to  state  purposes.  The  basement  contains  eleven 
rooms,  used  as  kitchens,  pantries  and  butler's  rooms.  These 
are  open,  spacious,  comfortable  and  cheerful  to  the  sight. 
On  the  second  floor,  the  six  rooms  of  the  north  front  are 
used  as  chambers  by  the  Presidential  family.  The  south 
front  has  seven  rooms — the  ante-chamber,  audience  room, 
cabinet  room,  private  office  of  the  president,  and  the  ladies' 
parlors.  The  ladies'  or  private  parlor  is  furnished  with 
ebony,  covered  with  blue  satin,  with  hangings  of  blue 
eatin  and  lace.  The  daughter  of  the  house  has  a  blue 
boudoir  lined  with  mirrors — its  pale  blue  carpet  strewn 
with  rose-buds.  The  state  bedroom  of  this  floor  is  a 
grand  apartment,  furnished  with  rose-wood  and  crimson 
satin ;  its  walls  hang  with  purple  and  gold.  The  bedstead 
is  high,  massive,  carved  and  canopied,  its  damask  curtains 
hanging  from  a  gilded  hoop  near  the  ceiling.  Before  the 
bed  lie  cushions  for  the  feet ;  against  the  walls  stand  two 
stately  wardrobes,  with  full  length  mirrors  lining  their 
doors,  while  arm-chairs  and  couches,  deeply  cushioned,  are 
scattered  over  the  velvet  carpet.  Its  articles  of  furniture 
are  stained  with  purple  devices — national,  historical  scenes, 
and  have  for  their  arms  the  American  Eagle.  The  ceiling 
is  profusely  frescoed,  and  hung  with  a  central  chandelier, 


THE  CONSERVATORY. 
INSIDE  THE  WHITE  HOUSE.— WASHINGTON. 


WHAT  MAY  BE   SEEN  WITHIN.  175 

while  in  the  winter  a  coal  fire,  under  the  marble  mantle, 
suffuses  the  sumptuous  room  with  a  genial  glow.  One  of 
the  curiosities  of  the  chamber  is  a  cigar-case,  inlaid  with 
pearls  and  mosaics  of  wood  from  China,  presented  to  Pres- 
ident Grant  by  Captain  Ammon,  of  the  United  States 
Navy. 

The  Secretaries'  room,  on  this  floor,  is  a  large  airy  apart- 
ment, with  mahogany  furniture,  set  there  in  Martin  Van 
Buren's  time,  with  green  curtains,  twenty-five  years  old, 
on  the  windows.  The  President's  business  and  reception- 
room  is  a  large  apartment,  looking  out  on  the  southern 
grounds,  and  carpeted  with  crimson  and  white.  A  large 
black  walnut  table,  surrounded  with  chairs,  stands  in  the 
centre  of  the  room.  It  is  furnished  with  black  walnut 
desks  and  sofas.  On  the  mantel  stands  a  clock  which  tells 
the  time  of  day  and  the  day  of  the  month,  and  which  is  a 
thermometer  and  barometer  besides.  The  walls  are  high, 
and  frescoed  on  a  yellow  ground  tint.  Tapestry  and  lace 
curtains  are  looped  back  from  the  windows,  which  look 
down  upon  the  lovely  southern  grounds,  and  to  the  river, 
gleaming  at  intervals  through  the  foliage  beyond. 

The  stateliest  room  on  this  floor  is  the  library,  used  in 
Mrs.  John  Adams'  time  as  a  reception-room,  furnished 
then  in  crimson.  It  was  almost  bookless  till  Mr.  Filmore's 
administration,  when  it  was  fitted  up  as  a  library,  and 
many  books  were  added  during  the  administration  of 
President  Buchanan.  It  is  now  lined  with  heavy  mahog- 
any book-cases,  finished  with  solid  oak,  covered  with 
maroon.  It  is  sometimes  used  by  the  President  as  an  offi- 
cial reception-room,  and  sometimes  as  an  evening  loung- 
ing-place  for  the  Presidential  family  and  their  guests. 

On  the  north  lawn  of  the  President's  house.,  which  in 


176  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Jefferson's  time  was  a  barren,  stony,  unfenced  waste, 
under  the  green  arcade  made  by  glorious  trees,  now  stands 
a  bronze  statue  of  Jefferson.  It  was  presented  to  the 
government  by  Captain  Levy,  of  the  United  States'  army, 
who  in  1840  owned  Monticello. 

From  the  great  portico,  we  look  beyond  this  statue, 
across  Pennsylvania  avenue,  to  an  equestrian  image  of 
Jackson,  rearing  frantically  and  preposterously  hi  the 
centre  of  Lafayette  square.  Lovely  Lafayette  square,  laid 
out  by  Downing — perfect  in  blending  tint  and  outline, 
flower  of  mimic  parks!  Beyond  its  trees  we  catch  a 
glimpse  of  its  encircling  historic  houses,  and  of  the  brown 
ivy-hung  walls  of  St.  John's  venerable  church,  its  tiny 
and  old  time  tower  showing  so  picturesquely  against  the 
evening  sky. 

The  avenue  of  lofty  trees  on  the  west  side  of  the  Presi- 
dent's house — beneath  whose  shade,  in  the  dimness  of  the 
night,  Lincoln  used  to  take  his  solitary  walk,  and  carry  his 
heavy  heart  to  the  War  Department — were  planted  by 
John  Quincy  Adams.  No  swelling  tree-crowned  knolls, 
no  grassy  glades  could  be  more  restful  to  the  sight  than 
the  southern  grounds  of  the  President's  house.  From  its 
height  it  looks  down  upon  this  rolling  park,  reaching  now 
to  the  Potomac,  bounded  by  its  gleaming  waters,  on  which 
so  many  white  sails  drift,  and  doze,  and  dream  in  the 
languid  summer  weather. 


CHAPTER  XX. 
LADIES  OF  THE  WHITE  HOUSE. 

A  Mu;j«ing  Dream — Wives  and  Daughters  of  the  Presidents — Memories  of 
Martha  Washington — An  Average  Matron  of  the  18th  Century — Educa- 
tional Disadvantages — Comparisons — A  Well-Regulated  Lady — A  Useful 
Wife — Warm  Words  of  Abigail  Adams — Advantages  of  Having  a  Dis- 
tinguished Husband — A  Modern  Lucretia — Washington's  Inauguration 
Suit — An  Awkward  Position  for  a  Lady — A  Primitive  Levie — Festivities 
in  Franklin  Square  ! — Decorous  Ideas  of  the  Father  of  His  Country — 
The  Government  on  Its  Travels — Transporting  the  Household  Gods — 
Keeping  Early  Hours — Primitive  Customs — A  Dignified  Conge1 — Much- 
Shaken  Hands — Remembrances  of  a  Past  Age — An  English  Manufacturer 
"  Struck  with  Awe  " — Very  Questionable  Humility — The  Room  in  which 
Washington  Died — Days  of  Widowhood — A  Wife's  Congratulations — A 
True  Woman— Domestic  Affairs  at  the  White  House— An  Unfinished 
Mansion — Interesting  Details — A  Woman's  Influence — A  Monument 
Wanted — Devotion  of  a  Husband — The  "  Single  Life  " — Theodocia  Burr 
and  Katherine  Chase — "Levees"  Summarily  Abolished — Disappointed 
Belles — An  Extraordinary  Reception — Blacked  His  Own  Boots — A  Dig- 
nified Foreigner  Shocked — Governmental  Enquiries — Womanly  Indig- 
nation— The  Poet  Pardoned — "The  Sweetest  Creature  in  Virginia" — 
A  Daughter's  Affection. 

SITTING  in  the  lovely  Blue  Room  this  June  morning, 
the  breezes  from  the  Potomac  floating  through  the 
closed  blinds  and  lace  curtains,  drifting  over  the  mounds 
of  flowers  which,  rising  high  above  the  great  vases,  fill 
all  the  air  with  fragrance,  I  evoke  from  the  past  a  com- 
pany of  fair  and  stately  women  who  have  dwelt  under 
this  roof,  or  influenced  the  lif e  and  happiness  of  men  who 
have  ruled  the  nation. 

12 


178  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

First,  Martha  Washington.  To  be  sure,  she  never 
reigned  in  the  Blue  Room ;  but  who  can  recall  the  wives 
of  the  Presidents  and  not  see  the  very  first,  the  serenely 
beautiful  old  lady  whose  face  is  so  familiar  to  us  all. 

In  herself,  Martha  Washington  was  in  no  wise  a  remark- 
able woman.  Personally,  she  was  a  fair  representative  of 
the  average  American  matron  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
I  say  American,  for  whatever  may  be  her  right  to  boast 
of  superior  educational  advantages  to-day,  in  the  time  of 
Martha  Washington  and  Abigail  Adams,  New  England 
ignored  utterly  the  education  of  her  women.  They  were 
shut  out  even  from  the  Boston  High-School,  because  they 
had  flocked  to  it  in  such  numbers  in  pursuit  of  knowl- 
edge. While  her  brother  went  to  Harvard,  the  girl  of 
Massachusetts,  if  taught  at  all,  was  self-taught.  Massachu- 
setts had  no  right  to  boast  over  Virginia  in  that  day. 
The  daughters  of  the  cavalier  probably  were  oftener 
taught  to  dance  and  to  play  the  spinnet  than  the  daughters 
of  the  Puritans ;  but  neither  could  spell,  nor  many  more  than 
barely  read.  But  had  Martha  Washington  enjoyed  the 
highest  mental  privileges,  she  would  never  have  been  known 
to  the  world  as  an  intellectual  woman,  or  as  a  woman  who, 
by  any  impulse  of  her  unassisted  nature,  would  ever  have 
risen  above  the  commonplace.  She  could  spin,  but  she 
could  not  spell.  She  could  bask  in  the  warmth  of  the  boun- 
tiful home  whose  heavy  cares  were  all  carried  by  her  illus- 
trious husband.  She  could  pack  the  family  coach  with 
delicacies,  and  go  through  storm  and  mud  once  a  year  to 
his  camp,  when  the  perils  of  his  country  had  made  him  its 
deliverer ;  but  it  is  doubtful  if  any  impulse  of  her  soul 
would  ever  have  roused  her  to  the  majestic  eloquence  of 
Abigail  Adams,  who,  when  she  read  the  English  King's 


A  CHRISTIAN  LADY'S  PRAYER.  179 

proclamation  to  his  rebellious  colonies,  with  her  little  chil- 
dren about  her  in  the  depth  of  the  night,  wrote  to  her 
absent  husband  :  "  This  intelligence  will  make  a  plain 
path  for  you,  though  a  dangerous  one.  I  could  not  join 
to-day  in  the  petition  of  our  worthy  pastor  for  a  recon- 
ciliation between  our  no  longer  parent  state,  but  tyrant 
state,  and  these  colonies.  Let  us  separate  ;  they  are  un- 
worthy to  be  our  brethren.  Let  us  renounce  them,  and 
instead  of  supplications  as  formerly  for  their  prosperity 
and  happiness  ;  let  us  beseech  the  Almighty  to  blast  their 
counsels  and  bring  to  naught  all  their  devices." 

Abigail  Adams  comes  down  to  posterity,  independently 
of  all  relations  to  others,  as  one  of  the  grandest  women 
of  her  time.  Martha  Washington's  only  claim  to  venerar 
tion  is  because  she  was  the  wife  of  Washington.  As  his 
wife,  her  homely  virtues  and  moral  rectitude  show  to  un- 
clouded advantage.  Personally,  her  most  marked  charac- 
teristics were  her  strong  natural  sense  of  propriety  and 
fitness  and  high  moral  qualities.  In  these,  if  she  never 
added  lustre  to  it,  she  always  honored  the  name  of  Wash- 
ington. We  see  the  former  characteristic  in  the  fact,  that 
iuring  the  Revolution  she  never  wore  foreign  or  costly 
attire.  While  all  the  outer  affairs  of  the  estate,  to  their 
minutest  detail,  were  superintended  by  General  Washing- 
ton, in  addition  to  the  mighty  burdens  of  state  which  he 
bore,  Mrs.  Washington  superintended  her  handmaidens 
and  spinning-wheels.  Looms  were  constantly  plying  in 
her  house,  and  General  Washington  wore,  at  his  first  inau- 
guration, a  full  suit  of  fine  cloth  woven  in  his  own  house. 
At  a  ball  given  in  New  Jersey,  in  honor  of  herself,  Martha 
Washington  appeared  in  "simple  russet  gown,"  with  a 
white  handkerchief  about  her  neck.  To  the  state  levees 


180  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

of  New  York  and  Philadelphia  she  carried  the  same  stately 
simplicity.  A  lady  of  the  olden  time,  a  daughter  of  Vir- 
ginia, her  ideas  of  court  forms  and  etiquette  had  all  been 
received  from  the  mother  country.  Hers  was  the  difficult 
task  to  harmonize  aristocratic  exclusiveness  with  republican 
plainness.  She  was  never  to  forget  that  she  was  the  wife 
of  the  President  of  a  Republic, — and  also  never  to  forget 
that  she  was  to  command  the  respect  of  the  old  mon- 
archies who  were  ready  to  despise  everything  poor  and 
crude  in  the  efforts  of  the  new  government  to  maintain 
itself  in  poverty,  difficulty  and  inexperience.  Thus  the 
social  levees  of  the  first  President  of  the  United  States,  at 
No.  3,  Franklin  square,  New  York,  were  held  under  the 
most  rigorous  and  exclusive  rules.  They  were  only  open 
to  persons  of  privileged  rank  and  degree,  and  they  could 
not  enter  unless  attired  in  full  dress.  The  receptions  of 
Mrs.  Washington  merely  reproduced,  on  a  smaller  plan, 
the  customs  and  ceremonies  of  foreign  courts. 

The  first  President  and  his  wife  never  forgot  their  per- 
sonal dignity,  and  never  forgot  that  they  represented  a  re- 
public which  was  already  an  object  of  interested  scrutiny 
to  the  whole  civilized  world.  President  Washington  wrote 
to  his  friend  Mrs.  Macaulay:  "Mrs.  Washington's  ideas 
coincide  with  my  own  as  to  simplicity  of  dress  and  every- 
thing which  can  tend  to  support  propriety  of  character 
without  partaking  of  the  follies  of  luxury  and  ostentation." 

In  the  second  year  of  Washington's  administration,  the 
government  was  removed  to  Philadelphia,  there  to  remain 
for  the  next  ten  years.  The  household  furniture  of  the 
Washingtons  was  moved  thither  by  slow  and  weary  pro- 
cesses of  land  and  water,  the  President,  in  addition  to  his 
public  cares,  superintending  personally  the  preparation  and 


GOING   TO    BED    EARLY.  181 

embarkation  of  every*  article  himself.  Mrs.  Washington 
was  sick  at  the  time,  but  the  following  year,  the  house  of 
Robert  Morris  having  been  taken  by  the  corporation,  as 
the  President's  house,  Mrs.  Washington  again  opened  her 
drawing-rooms  from  seven  to  ten  p.  M.  Sensible  woman ! 
No  haggard  and  faded  beauties  dancing  all  night,  faded  and 
old  before  their  time,  owed  their  wasted  lives  and  powers 
to  her.  In  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  when  the  clock's 
hand  pointed  to  ten,  she  arose  with  affable  dignity,  and, 
bowing  to  all,  retired,  leaving  her  guests  to  do  likewise. 
With  this  action,  it  was  unnecessary  to  repeat  the  announce- 
ment which  she  made  at  the  first  levee  held  by  her  in  New 
York,  viz. :  "  General  Washington  retires  at  ten  o'clock,  and 
I  usually  precede  him.  Good-night." 

At  these  levees  Mrs.  Washington  sat.  The  guests  were 
grouped  in  a  circle,  round  which  the  President  passed, 
speaking  politely  to  each  one,  but  never  shaking  hands. 
It  was  reserved  to  a  later  generation  to  shake  that  poor 
member  till  it  has  to  be  poulticed  after  official  greetings. 
It  was  the  habit  of  Mrs.  Washington  to  return  the  calls  of 
those  who  were  privileged  to  pay  her  visits.  A  Philadel- 
phia lady  who,  as  a  child,  remembered  her,  wrote :  "  It 
was  Mrs.  Washington's  custom  to  return  visits  on  the  third 
day.  In  calling  on  my  mother  she  would  send  a  footman 
over,  who  would  knock  loudly  and  announce  Mrs.  Wash- 
ington, who  would  then  come  over  with  Mr.  Lear.  Her 
manners  were  very  easy,  pleasant  and  unceremonious, 
with  the  characteristics  of  other  Virginia  ladies." 

An  English  manufacturer,  who  breakfasted  with  the 
President's  family  in  1794,  says : 

"  I  was  struck  with  awe  and  veneration  when  I  recollected 
that  I  was  now  in  the  presence  of  the  great  Washington*  the 


182  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

noble  and  wise  benefactor  of  the  world Mrs.  Wash- 
ington herself,  made  tea  and  coffee  for  us.  On  the  table  were  two 
small  plates  of  sliced  tongue  and  dry  toast,  bread  and  butter ; 
but  no  broiled  fish,  as  is  the  custom  here.  She  struck  me  as  being 
somewhat  older  than  the  President,  though  I  understand  both 
were  born  the  same  year.  She  was  extremely  simple  in  her 
dress,  and  wore  a  very  plain  cap,  with  her  gray  hair  turned  up 
under  it." 

It  is  as  the  wife  of  Washington,  through  sentiments 
called  out  by  the  greatness  of  his  character  and  the  love 
which  she  bore  him,  that  the  moral  capacity  of  Martha 
Washington's  nature  ever  approaches  greatness.  In  her  re- 
ply to  Congress,  who  asked  that  the  body  of  George  Wash- 
ington might  be  placed  beneath  a  monument  in  the  capitol 
which  his  patriotism  had  done  so  much  to  rear,  her  words 
rise  to  the  patriotic  grandeur  of  Abigail  Adams,  they 
could  not  rise  higher.  She  says : 

"  Taught  by  that  great  example,  which  I  have  so  long  had 
before  me,  never  to  oppose  my  private  wishes  to  the  public  will, 
I  must  consent  to  the  request  made  by  Congress,  which  you 
have  had  the  goodness  to  transmit  to  me,  and  in  doing  this,  I 
need  not,  I  cannot  say  what  a  sacrifice  of  individual  feeling  I 
make  to  a  sense  of  public  duty." 

But  it  is  in  the  little  room  at  Mount  Vernon,  in  which 
she  died,  that  Martha  Washington,  as  a  woman,  comes 
nearest  to  us.  Here  one  can  realize  how  utterly  done 
with  earth,  its  pangs  and  glory,  was  the  soul  who  shut 
herself  within  its  narrow  walls,  there  to  take  on  immortal- 
ity. The  rooms  of  Washington  below,  a  thrifty  mechanic 
of  the  present  day  would  think  too  small  and  shabby  for 
him.  Here  he  died.  And  when  the  great  soul  went  forth 


A  WIFE'S   LETTEK.  183 

to  the  unknown,  as  a  human  presence  to  inhabit  it  never 
more,  the  wife  also  went  forth,  and  never  again  crossed  its 
threshold.  Here,  in  this  little  room,  scarcely  more  than  a 
closet,  surrounded  only  by  the  simplest  necessaries  of  ex- 
istence, Martha  Washington  lived  out  the  lonely  days  of 
her  desolate  widowhood — and  here  she  died. 

Abigail  Adams  was  the  first  wife  of  a  President  who 
ever  presided  at  the  White  House — the  President's  house, 
as  it  was  so  fitly  called  in  those  days.  Only  in  this  latter 
time  of  degenerate  English  has  it  swelled  into  the  "  Ex- 
ecutive Mansion." 

In  February,  1797,  John  Adams  wa&  elected  President 
of  the  United  States,  to  succeed  President  Washington. 
From  her  country  home  in  Massachusetts,  Mrs.  Adams 
sent  to  her  husband  the  following  recognition  of  his  ex- 
altation to  be  chief  ruler  of  the  United  States : 

"  You  have  this  day  to  declare  yourself  head  of  a  nation. 
•  And  now,  O  Lord,  iny  God,  thou  hast  made  thy  servant  ruler 
over  the  people,  give  unto  him  an  understanding  heart,  that  he 
may  know  how  to  go  out  and  to  come  in  before  this  great  people  ; 
that  he  may  discern  between  good  and  bad.  For  who  is  able  to 
judge  this,  thy  so  great  a  people  ? '  were  the  words  of  a  royal 
sovereign,  and  not  less  applicable  to  him  who  is  invested  with 
the  chief  magistracy  of  a  nation,  though  he  wear  not  a  crown 
nor  the  robes  of  royalty.  My  thoughts  and  meditations  are 
with  you,  though  personally  absent ;  and  my  petitions  to  heaven 
are,  that  the  things  which  make  for  your  peace  may  not  be  hid- 
den from  your  eyes.  My  feelings  are  not  those  of  pride  or 
ostentation  upon  the  occasion.  They  are  solemnized  by  a  sense 
of  the  obligations,  the  important  trusts,  and  numerous  duties 
connected  with  it.  That  you  may  be  enabled  to  discharge  them 
with  honor  to  yourself,  with  justice  and  impartiality  to  your 


184  TEN  TEAKS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

country,  and  with  satisfaction  to  this  great  people,  shall  be  the 
daily  prayer  of  yours — " 

In  such  exaltation  of  spirit,  and  with  such  grandeur  of 
speech,  did  the  wife  of  the  second  President  receive  the 
fact  of  her  husband's  elevation.  As  devout  as  Deborah, 
her  utterance  is  equally  marked  by  its  comprehensiveness 
of  view,  its  devotion  and  self-forgetfulness.  No  visions  of 
personal  finery,  of  fashionable  entertainments  and  show, 
gleam  through  the  gra,nd  utterances  of  this  majestic 
woman.  And  yet  no  pictures  of  the  White  House,  no 
sketches  of  the  social  life  of  her  time  begin  to  be  as  graphic, 
frequent  and  "  telling,"  as  those  of  Abigail  Adams.  Noth- 
ing has  been  more  quoted  than  her  sketch  of  the  White 
House  as  she  found  it. 

"  The  house  is  upon  a  grand  and  superb  scale,  requiring  about 
thirty  servants  to  attend  and  keep  the  apartments  in  proper 
order,  and  perform  the  ordinary  business  of  the  house  and 
stables — an  establishment  very  well  proportioned  to  the  Pres- 
ident's salary.  The  lighting  the  apartments  from  the  kitchen 
to  parlors  and  chambers,  is  a  tax  indeed,  and  the  fires  we  are 
obliged  to  keep  to  secure  us  from  daily  agues  is  another  very 
cheering  comfort.  To  assist  us  hi  this  castle,  and  render  less  at- 
tendance necessary,  bells  are  wholly  wanting,  not  one  single  one 
being  hung  through  the  whole  house,  and  promises  are  all  you 
can  obtain.  This  is  so  great  an  inconvenience  that  I  know  not 
what  to  do  or  how  to  do.  The  ladies  from  Georgetown  and  in 
the  city  have  many  of  them  visited  me.  Yesterday  I  returned 
fifteen  visits.  But  such  a  place  as  Georgetown  appears  !  Why, 
our  Milton  is  beautiful.  But  no  comparisons  ;  if  they  put  me 
up  bells,  and  let  me  have  wood  enough  to  keep  fires,  I  design  to 
be  pleased.  But  surrounded  with  forests,  can  you  believe  that 
wood  is  not  to  be  had,  because  people  cannot  be  found  to 

cut  and   cart  it We   have   indeed   come  into  a  new 

country. 


THE   WHITE   HOUSE,   SEVENTY   YEARS   AGO.  185 

"The  house  is  made  habitable,  but  there  is  not  a  single  apart- 
ment finished,  and  all  within  side,  except  the  plastering,  has 

been  done  since  B.  came If  the  twelve  years  in  which 

this  place  has  been  considered  as  the  future  seat  of  govern- 
ment, had  been  improved  as  they  would  have  been  in  New 
England,  very  many  of  the  present  inconveniences  would  have 
been  removed.  It  is  a  beautiful  spot,  capable  of  any  improve- 
ment, and  the  more  I  view  it  the  more  I  am  delighted  with  it. 

"  The  ladies  are  impatient  for  a  drawing-room  :  I  have  no 
looking-glasses  but  dwarfs,  for  this  house  ;  and  a  twentieth 
part  lamps  enough  to  light  it.  My  tea-china  is  more  than 

half  missing You   can  scarcely  believe  that  here  in 

this  wilderness  city  I  should  find  my  time  so  occupied  as  it  is. 
My  visitors,  some  of  them,  came  three  or  four  miles.  The 

return  of  one  of  them  is  the  work  of  one  day We 

have  not  the  least  fence,  yard,  or  other  conveniences  without, 
and  the  great  unfinished  audience-room — (the  East  room)  I 
make  a  drying-room  of  to  hang  my  clothes  in.  Six  chambers 
are  made  comfortable  ;  two  lower  rooms,  one  for  a  common 
parlor  and  one  for  a  ball-room." 

Abigail  Adams  is  an  illustrious  example  of  the  grandeur 
of  human  character.  She  proved  in  herself  how  potent 
an  individual  may  be,  and  that  individual  a  woman,  in 
spite  of  caste,  of  sex,  or  the  restrictions  of  human  law  or 
condition.  She  never  went  to  school  in  her  life,  yet  her 
thoughtful  utterances  will  live  where  the  labored  utter- 
ances of  her  scholarly  husband  are  forgotten.  She  was 
less  than  a  year  the  mistress  of  the  President's  house,  yet 
she  has  lived  ever  since  in  memory  a  grand  model  to  all 
who  succeed  her.  The  daughter  of  a  country  clergyman, 
the  wife  of  a  patriotic  and  ambitious  man,  whether  she 
gathered  her  children  about  her  or  sent  them  forth  across 
stormy  seas,  while  she  left  herself  desolate ;  whether  she 


186  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

stood  the  wife  of  the  Republican  Minister  before  the 
haughty  Charlotte  in  the  stateliest  and  proudest  court  of 
Europe ;  whether  she  presided  in  the  President's  house  in 
the  new  Capital  or  in  the  wilderness,  or  wrote  to  states- 
men and  grandchildren  in  her  own  lowly  house  in  Quincy, 
in  prosperity  or  sorrow,  in  youth  and  in  age,  in  life  and 
in  death,  always  she  was  the  regnant  woman,  devout, 
wise,  patriotic,  proud,  humble  and  loving. 

Her  pictures  of  the  social  life  of  her  tune  are  among 
the  most  acute,  lively  and  graphic  on  record.  While  in 
her  letters  to  her  son,  to  her  husband,  to  Jefferson  and 
other  statesmen,  we  find  some  of  the  grandest  utterances 
of  the  Revolutionary  period.  Cut  off  by  her  sex  from 
active  participation  in  the  struggles  and  triumphs  of  the 
men  of  her  time,  not  one  of  them  would  have  died  more 
gladly  or  grandly  than  she,  for  liberty ;  denied  the  power 
of  manhood,  she  made  the  most  of  the  privileges  of 
womanhood.  She  instilled  into  the  souls  of  her  children 
great  ideas ;  she  inspired  her  husband  by  the  hourly  sight 
of  a  grand  example;  she  gave,  through  them,  her  life- 
long service  to  the  State,  and  she  gave  to  her  country 
and  to  posterity  her  spotless  and  heroic  memory.  Tardy 
Massachusetts !  You  build  monuments  to  your  sons,  and 
ignore  the  fame  of  your  illustrious  daughters.  When  in 
the  Pantheon  of  the  States  you  shall  place  the  sculptured 
forms  of  two  of  your  patriots,  honor  your  ancient  fame 
by  giving  to  posterity  the  majestic  lineaments  of  the  great 
woman  of  the  Revolution — Abigail  Adams. 

In  her  portrait,  Stuart  gives  us  Minerva  in  a  lace  cap. 
Dainty  and  delicate,  it  softens  without  veiling  her  august 
features.  The  exquisite  lace  ruff  about  the  throat,  the 
lace  shawl  upon  the  shoulders,  all  indicate  the  finest  of 


THE   THREAD    OF   A   SINGLE   LIFE.  187 

feminine  tastes,  while  the  broad  brow,  wide  eyes,  keenly 
cut  nose,  firm  chin  and  slightly  imperious  mouth,  proclaim 
the  proud  and  powerful  intellect,  and  the  high  head  the 
commanding  moral  nature  of  the  woman. 

The  wife  of  Jefferson  died  in  her  youth.  His  love  for 
her  was  the  passion  of  his  life.  In  his  love,  and  in  his 
existence,  she  was  never  supplanted.  'Ever  after,  he  lived 
in  his  children,  his  grand-children,  his  books  and  the 
affairs  of  State. 

Jefferson  had  two  daughters,  the  only  two  of  his  chil- 
dren who  survived  to  mature  life.  One  of  these,  Maria, 
who  in  childhood  went  to  Paris  in  the  care  of  Mrs.  Adams, 
and  who  was  remarkable  for  her  beauty  and  the  loveliness 
of  her  nature,  died  in  early  womanhood.  She  was  indiffer- 
ent to  her  own  beauty,  and  almost  resented  the  admiration 
which  it  called  forth,  exclaiming,  "  You  praise  me  for  that 
because  you  can  not  praise  me  for  better  things."  She 
set  an  extraordinary  value  upon  talent,  believing  that  the 
possession  of  it  alone  could  make  her  the  worthy  com- 
panion of  her  father.  She  was  most  tenderly  beloved  by 
him,  and,  at  the  time  of  her  early  death,  he  wrote  to  his 
friend,  Governor  Page :  "  Others  may  lose  of  their  abun- 
dance ;  but  I,  of  my  want,  have  lost  even  the  half  of  that 
I  had.  My  evening  prospects  now  hang  on  the  slender 
thread  of  a  single  life."  This  "single"  life  was  that  of 
Martha  Jefferson  Randolph.  She  lived  to  be  not  only 
the  domestic  comforter,  but  the  intellectual  companion  of 
her  father.  She  was  one  of  that  type  of  daughters,  of 
which,  in  our  own  country,  Theodocia  Burr  and  Katherine 
Chase  have  been  such  illustrious  examples.  These  women, 
equally  beautiful,  intellectual,  and  charming,  identified 


188  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

themselves  not  only  with  the  private  interests,  but 
with  the  public  life  and  political  ambitions  of  their 
fathers. 

Had  Martha  Jefferson  been  less  womanly  and  domestic, 
she  might  have  made  herself  famous  as  a  belle,  a  wit,  or  a 
scholar.  Married  at  seventeen,  the  mother  of  twelve 
children,  seven  of  whom  were  daughters,  the  fine  quality 
of  her  intellect,  and  the  nobility  of  her  soul  were  all 
merged  into  a  life  spent  in  their  guidance,  and  in  devo- 
tion and  service  to  her  husband  and  father.  The  mother 
of  five  children  at  the  time  of  her  father's  inauguration  as 
President  of  the  United  States,  separated  from  Washington 
by  a  long  and  fatiguing  journey,  which  could  only  be 
performed  by  coach  and  horse-travel,  Mrs.  Randolph  never 
made  but  two  visits  to  the  President's  house,  during  his 
two  terms  of  office.  Her  son,  James  Madison  Randolph 
was  born  in  the  "  White  House." 

Jefferson  began  his  Presidency  with  a  certain  ostentation 
of  democracy.  One  of  the  first  declarations  of  his  admin- 
istration was,  "Levees  are  done  away."  Remembering 
what  importance  was  attached  to  these  assemblies  by 
Washington  and  Adams,  and  what  grand  court  occasions 
they  were  made,  we  can  imagine  the  disapprobation  with 
which  this  mandate  was  received  by  the  "  belles  of  society." 
A  party  of  these  gathered  in  force,  and,  all  gaily  attired, 
proceeded  to  the  President's  house.  On  his  return  from  a 
horseback  ride  he  was  informed  that  a  large  number  of 
ladies  were  in  the  "  Levee  room  "  waiting  for  him.  Cov- 
ered with  dust,  spurs  on,  and  whip  in  hand,  he  proceeded 
to  the  drawing-room.  Shade  of  Washington !  He  told 
them  he  was  glad  to  see  them,  and  asked  them  to  remain. 
These  belles  and  beauties  received  his  polite  salutations 


AMUSING   DIPLOMATIC    CORRESPONDENCE.  189 

with  how  much  delight  we  may  fancy.  They  never  came 
again. 

A  Virginian  accustomed  to  the  service  of  slaves,  as  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  Jefferson  blacked  his  own 
boots.  A  foreign  functionary,  a  stickler  for  etiquette, 
paid  him  a  visit  of  ceremony  one  morning,  and  found  him 
engaged  in  this  pleasing  employment.  Jefferson  apolo- 
gized, saying,  that  being  a  plain  man,  he  did  not  like  to 
trouble  his  servants.  The  foreign  grandee  departed,  de- 
claring that  no  government  could  long  survive,  whose 
head  was  his  own  shoe-black.  Jefferson  gave  great  offense 
to  the  English  Minister,  Mr.  Merry,  because  he  took  Mrs. 
Madison,  to  whom  he  happened  to  be  talking,  into  dinner 
instead  of  Mrs.  Merry.  Mr.  Merry  made  it  an  official 
offense  which  was  reported  to  his  government.  Mr.  Madi- 
son wrote  to  Mr.  Monroe,  who  was  then  Minister  to  England, 
that  he  might  be  ready  to  answer  the  call  of  the  British 
government  for  explanations.  Mr.  Monroe  wrote  back  that 
he  was  glad  of  it,  for  the  wife  of  a  British  under-secretary 
had  recently  been  given  precedence  to  Mrs.  Monroe,  in 
being  escorted  to  the  dinner  table.  Nevertheless,  Mrs. 
Merry's  nose  never  came  down  from  the  air,  and  she  never 
again  crossed  the  threshold  of  the  President's  house. 

The  same  year  Jefferson  aroused  the  ire  of  Thomas 
Moore,  then  twenty-four  years  of  age,  and  without  fame, 
save  in  his  own  country.  The  President,  from  his  altitude 
of  six  feet  two-and-a-half  inches,  looked  down  on  the 
curled  and  perfumed  little  poet,  and  spoke  a  word  and 
passed  on.  This  was  an  indignity  that  London's  and 
Dublin's  darling  never  pardoned,  and  he  went  back  to 
lampoon,  not  only  America,  but  the  President.  One  of 
his  attacks  came  into  the  hands  of  Martha  Randolph,  who, 


190  TEN  TEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

deeply  indignant,  placed  it  before  her  father  in  his  library. 
He  broke  into  an  amused  laugh.  Years  afterwards,  when 
Moore's  Irish  melodies  appeared,  Jefferson,  looking  them 
over,  exclaimed :  "  Why,  this  is  the  little  man  who  sat- 
irized me  so !  Why,  he  is  a  poet  after  all.  And  from 
that  moment  Moore  had  a  place  beside  Burns'  in  Jeffer- 
son's library. 

John  Eandolph,  her  father's  political  foe,  said  of  Martha 
Jefferson :  "  She  is  the  sweetest  creature  in  Virginia," 
and  we  all  know  that  John  Randolph  believed  that  noth- 
ing "  sweet"  or  even  endurable  existed  outside  of  Virginia. 
In  adversity  and  sorrow,  in  poverty  and  trial,  in  age  as  in 
youth,  the  steadfast  sweetness  of  character,  and  elevation 
of  nature,  which  made  Martha  Jefferson  remarkable  in 
prosperity,  shone  forth  with  transcendent  lustre  when  all 
external  accessories  had  fled.  The  daughter  of  a  man 
called  a  free-thinker,  she  all  her  life  was  sweetly,  simply, 
devoutly  religious.  In  her  letters  to  her  daughter,  "  Sep- 
timia,"  she  draws  us  nearer  to  her  tender  soul  in  its 
heavenly  love  and  charity.  This  daughter,  to  his  latest 
breath,  was  to  Jefferson,  the  soul  of  his  soul.  After  his 
retirement  she  not  only  entertained  his  guests,  and  minis- 
tered to  his  personal  comforts,  but  shared  intellectually 
all  his  thoughts  and  studies.  Six  months  before  her  death, 
Sully  painted  her  portrait.  Her  daughter-  says  : 

"  I  accompanied  her  to  Mr.  Sully's  studio,  and,  as  she  took 
her  seat  before  him,  she  said  playfully :  '  Mr.  Sully,  I  shall 
never  forgive  you  if  you  paint  me  with  wrinkles.' 

"  I  quickly  interrupted,  '  Paint  her  just  as  she  is,  Mr.  Sully, 
the  picture  is  for  me.' 

"  He  said,  *  I  shall  paint  you,  Mrs.  Randolph,  as  I  remember 
you  twenty  years  ago.' 


A    LITTLE    QUIET   FLATTERY.  191 

"  The  picture  does  represent  her  younger — but  failed  to 
restore  the  expression  of  health  and  cheerful,  ever-joyous 
vivacity  which  her  countenance  then  habitually  wore.  My 
mother's  face  owed  its  greatest  charm  to  its  expressiveness, 
beaming,  as  it  ever  was,  with  kindness,  good  humor,  gayety  and 
wit.  She  was  tall  and  very  graceful ;  her  complexion  naturally 
fair,  her  hair  of  a  dark  chestnut  color,  very  long  and  very 
abundant.  Her  manners  were  uncommonly  attractive  from  their 
vivacity,  amiability  and  high  breeding,  and  her  conversation  was 
charming." 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

WIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS— LIFE  AT  THE  WHITE  HOUSE. 

A  Social  Queen—"  The  Most  Popular  Person  in  the  United  States  "— "  Dolly 
Madison's  "  Keign— The  Slow  Days  of  Old— A  Young  Lady  Rides  Five 
Hundred  Miles  on  Horseback— Travelling  Under  Difficulties— Political 
Pugnacity — A  Peaceful  Policy — Formality  versus  Hospitality — Big  Dishes 
Laughed  at — A  Foreign  Minister  Criticises — Advantages  of  a  Good  Mem- 
ory— Funny  Adventure  of  a  Rustic  Youth — A  Strange  Pocketful — Putting 
Him  at  his  Ease— Doleful  Visage  of  a  New  President— Getting  Rid  of  a 
Burden — A  Brave  Lady — She  Writes  to  Her  Sister — Waiting  in  Sus- 
pense—Taking Care  of  Cabinet  Papers — "  Disaffection  Stalks  Around 
Us  " — "  Col.  C."  very  Prudently  "  Skedaddles  " — One  Hundred  "  Braves  " 
Skedaddle  with  Him — "  French  John  "  Makes  a  Proposition — He  Desires 
to  "Blow  up  the  British  "—John  "Doesn't  See  It" — Watching  and 
Waiting — Flight — Unscrewing  the  Picture — After  the  War — Brilliant 
Receptions— Mrs.  Madison's  Snuff  Box— Clay  Takes  a  Pinch—"  This  is 
My  Polisher!  " — "  Tempora  Mutantur" — Two  Plain  Old  Ladies  from  the 
West—"  If  I  Jest  Kissed  you  "—They  Depart  in  Peace— Days  of  Trouble 
and  Care — Manuscripts  Purchased  by  Congress — The  "  Franking  Privi- 
lege "  Conferred  upon  Mrs.  Madison — Honored  by  Congress — Last  Days 
of  a  Good  Woman — Mrs.  Monroe — A  Serene  and  Aristocratic  Woman — 
"  La  Belle  Americaine" — Madame  Lafayette  in  Prison — Fennimore 
Cooper  Expresses  an  Opinion — Grotesque  Anomalies  at  a  Reception — The 
Crown  and  the  Eagle. 

T)RESIDENT  JEFFERSON  showed  his  personal  appre- 
JL  elation  as  well  as  his  official  recognition  of  Mrs. 
Madison,  both  in  his  letters  to  his  daughters  and  in  the 
fact  that  Mrs.  Madison,  when  the  wife  of  the  Secretary  of 
State,  presided  at  Jefferson's  table  during  the  absence  of 
his  own  family.  But  it  was  as  the  wife  of  the  fourth 


"ROUGHING   IT"    SEVENTY   TEARS   AGO.  193 

President  of  the  United  States  that  she  inaugurated  the 
golden  reign  of  the  President's  house. 

She  was  the  only  woman  of  absolute  social  genius,  who 
ever  presided  in  this  house.  Thus  the  beneficence  and 
brilliancy  of  her  reign  was  never  approached  before  her 
time,  and  has  never  been  equalled  since. 

It  is  a  rare  combination  of  gifts  and  graces  which  pro- 
duces the  pre-eminent  social  queen,  in  any  era  or  in  any 
sphere.  Mrs.  Madison  seemed  to  possess  them  all.  During 
the  administration  of  her  husband  she  was  openly  declared 
to  be  "  the  most  popular  person  in  the  United  States ; " 
and  now,  after  the  lapse  of  generations,  after  hosts  of 
women,  bright,  beautiful  and  admired,  have  lived,  reigned, 
died,  and  are  forgotten,  "Dolly  Madison"  seems  to  abide 
to-day  in  Washington,  a  living  and  beloved  presence. 
The  house  in  which  her  old  age  was  spent,  and  from  which 
she  passed  to  heaven,  is  every  day  pointed  out  to  the 
stranger  as  her  abode.  Her  face  abides  with  us  as  the 
face  of  a  friend,  while  her  words  and  deeds  are  constantly 
recalled  as  authority,  unquestioned  and  benign. 

When  she  began  her  reign  in  Washington,  steamboats 
were  the  wonder  of  the  world;  railroads  undreamed  of; 
turnpike  roads  scarcely  begun;  the  stagecoach  slow,  in- 
convenient, and  cumbersome.  The  daughter  of  one  sena- 
tor, who  wished  to  enjoy  the  delights  of  the  new  capital, 
came  five  hundred  miles  on  horseback  by  her  father's  side. 
The  wife  of  a  member  rode  fifteen  hundred  miles  on  horse- 
back, passed  through  several  Indian  settlements,  and  spent 
nights  without  seeing  a  house  in  which  she  could  lodge. 
Under  such  difficulties  did  lovely  women  come  to  Wash- 
ington, and  out  of  such  material  were  blended  the  society 

of  that  conspicuous  era. 
13 


194  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

When  Mrs.  Madison  entered  the  President's  house,  the 
strife  between  the  democratic  and  republican  parties  was  at 
its  highest.  Washington,  above  all  party,  had  yet  declared 
himself  the  advocate  of  the  unity  and  force  of  the  central 
power.  Jefferson  had  been  the  President  t)f  the  opposi- 
tion, who  wished  the  supremacy  of  the  masses  to  overrule 
that  of  the  higher  classes.  On  these  contending  factions 
Mrs.  Madison  shed  equally  the  balm  of  her  benign  nature. 
Not  because  she  was  without  opinions,  but  because  she 
was  without  malignity  or  rancor  of  spirit.  Born  and 
reared  a  "  Friend,"  she  brought  the  troubled  elements  of 
political  society  together  in  the  bonds  of  peace.  She  pos- 
sessed, in  pre-eminent  degree,  the  power  of  intuitive  adapt- 
ation to  individuals,  however  diversified  in  character,  and 
the  exquisite  tact  in  dealing  with  them,  which  always 
characterizes  the  true  social  queen.  She  loved  human 
beings  and  delighted  in  their  fellowship.  She  never  for- 
got an  old  friend,  and  never  neglected  the  opportunity  of 
making  a  new  one.  She  banished  from  her  drawing-room 
the  stately  forms  and  ceremonials  which  had  made  the  re- 
ceptions of  Mrs.  Washington  and  Mrs.  Adams  very  ele- 
gant and  rather  dreadful  affairs.  She  was  very  hospitable, 
and  a  table  bountifully  loaded  was  her  delight  and  pride. 
The  abundance  and  size  of  her  dishes  were  objects  of  ridi- 
cule to  a  Foreign  Minister,  even  when  she  entertained  as 
the  wife  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  he  declaring  that  her 
entertainments  were  more  like  "  a  harvest  home  supper 
than  the  entertainment  of  a  Cabinet  Minister." 

Mrs.  Madison  never  forgot  the  name  of  any  person  to 
whom  she  had  been  introduced,  nor  any  incident  con- 
nected with  any  person  whom  she  knew.  Able  to  sum- 
mon these  at  an  instant's  notice,  she  instinctively  made 


ADVENTURE    OF   A   RUSTIC   YOUTH.  195 

each  individual,  who  entered  her  presence,  feel  that  he  or 
she  was  an  object  of  especial  interest.  Nor  was  this  mere 
society-manners.  Genial  and  warm-hearted,  it  was  her 
happiness  to  make  everybody  feel  as  much  at  ease  as  pos- 
sible. This  gentle  kindness,  the  unknown  and  lowly  shared 
equally  with  the  highest  in  worldly  station.  At  one  of 
her  receptions  her  attention  was  called  to  a  rustic  youth 
whose  back  was  set  against  the  wall.  Here  he  stood  as  if 
nailed  to  it,  till  he  ventured  to  stretch  forth  his  hand  and 
take  a  proffered  cup  of  coffee.  Mrs.  Madison,  according 
to  her  wont,  wishing  to  relieve  his  embarrassment,  and 
put  him  at  his  ease,  walked  up  and  spoke  to  him.  The 
youth,  astonished  and  overpowered,  dropped  the  saucer, 
and  unconsciously  thrust  the  cup  into  his  breeches  pocket. 
"The  crowd  is  so  great,  no  one  can  avoid  being  jostled," 
said  the  gentle  woman.  "The  servant  will  bring  you 
another  cup  of  coffee.  Pray,  how  did  you  leave  your 
excellent  mother  ?  I  had  once  the  honor  of  knowing  her, 
but  I  have  not  seen  her  for  some  years."  Thus  she  talked, 
till  she  made  him  feel  that  she  was  his  friend,  as  well  as  his 
mother's.  In  time,  he  found  it  possible  to  dislodge  the 
coffee  cup  from  his  pocket,  and  to  converse  with  the  Juno- 
like  lady  in  a  crimson  turban,  as  if  she  were  an  old  ac- 
quaintance. 

Like  Amelia  Opie,  and  other  beautiful  "  Friends,"  who 
have  shone  amid  "  the  world's  people,"  Mrs.  Madison  de- 
lighted in  deep  warm  colors,  the  very  opposite  of  the  sil- 
ver grays  of  a  demure  Quakeress.  At  the  inauguration 
ball,  when  Jefferson,  the  outgoing  President,  came  to  re- 
ceive Madison,  his  successor,  Mrs.  Madison  wore  a  robe  of 
buff-colored  velvet,  a  Paris  turban  with  a  bird  of  paradise 
plume,  with  pearls  on  her  neck  and  arms.  A  chronicler 


196  TEN  YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

of  the  event  says  that  she  "looked  and  moved  a  queen." 
Jefferson  was  all  life  and  animation,  while  the  new  Presi- 
dent looked  care-worn  and  pale.  "Can  you  wonder  at 
it?"  said  Jefferson.  "My  shoulders  have  just  been  freed 
from  a  heavy  burden — his  just  laden  with  it." 

When  a  manager  brought  Mrs.  Madison  the  first  num- 
ber in  the  dance,  she  said,  smiling :  "  I  never  dance ;  what 
shall  I  do  with  it?" 

"Give  it  to  the  lady  next  to  you,"  was  the  answer. 

"No,  that  would  look  like  partiality." 

"Then  I  will,"  said  the  manager,  and  presented  it  to 
her  sister. 

This  lady,  who  filled  every  hour  of  prosperity  with  the 
rare  sunshine  of  her  nature,  in  the  hour  of  trial  was  not 
found  wanting,  and  in  the  face  of  danger  rose  to  the  dig- 
nity of  heroism.  Her  gallant  stay  in  the  White  House, 
while  her  husband  had  gone  to  hold  a  council  of  war,  and 
in  spite  of  every  entreaty  to  leave  it,  is  a  proud  fact  of  our 
history.  In  vain  friends  brought  a  carriage  to  the  door. 
She  refused  to  enter  it.  The  following  well-known  letter 
to  her  sister,  proves  how  bravely,  womanly  was  this  hero- 
ine of  the  President's  house. 

TUESDAY,  August  23,  1814. 

DEAR  SISTER: — My  husband  left  me  yesterday  to  join 
General  Winder.  He  enquired  anxiously  whether  I  had  the 
courage  or  firmness  to  remain  in  the  President's  house  until  his 
return,  on  the  morrow,  or  succeeding  day,  and  on  my  assurance 
that  I  had  no  fear  but  for  him  and  the  success  of  our  army,  he 
left  me,  beseeching  me  to  take  care  of  myself  and  of  the  Cabi- 
net papers,  public  and  private. 

I  have  since  received  two  dispatches  from  him,  written  with 
a  pencil ;  the  last  is  alarming,  because  he  desires  that  I  should 


A   LADY    OF   DETERMINATION.  197 

be  ready  at  a  moment's  warning,  to  enter  my  carriage  and  leave 
the  city ;  that  the  enemy  seemed  stronger  than  had  been  re- 
ported, and  that  it  might  happen  that  they  would  reach  the  city 
with  intention  to  destroy  it.  ...  I  am  accordingly  ready ;  I 
have  pressed  as  many  Cabinet  papers  into  trunks  as  to  fill  one 
carriage  ;  our  private  property  must  be  sacrificed,  as  it  is  impos- 
sible to  procure  wagons  for  its  transportation.  I  am  determined 
not  to  go  myself,  until  I  see  Mr.  Madison  safe,  and  he  can  ac- 
company me — as  I  hear  of  much  hostility  toward  him 

Disaffection  stalks  around  us.  My  friends  and  acquaintances 
are  all  gone,  even  Colonel  C.  with  his  hundred  men,  who  were 

stationed  as  a  guard  in  this  enclosure French  John  (a 

faithful  domestic)  with  his  usual  activity  and  resolution  offers 
to  spike  the  cannon  at  the  gate,  and  lay  a  train  of  powder  which 
would  blow  up  the  British,  should  they  enter  the  house.  To 
the  last  proposition,  I  positively  object,  without  being  able, 
however,  to  make  him  understand  why  all  advantages  in  war 
may  not  be  taken. 

Wednesday  morning,  twelve  o'clock. — Since  sunrise,  I  have 
been  turning  my  spy-glass  in  every  direction  and  watching  with 
unwearied  anxiety,  hoping  to  discover  the  approach  of  my  dear 
husband  and  his  friends  ;  but,  alas,  I  can  descry  only  groups  of 
military  wandering  in  all  directions,  as  if  there  was  a  lack  of 
arms,  or  of  spirits,  to  fight  for  their  own  firesides. 

Three  o'clock. — Will  you  believe  it,  my  sister  ?  we  have  had 
a  battle,  or  a  skirmish,  near  Bladensburg,  and  I  am  still  here 
within  sound  of  the  cannon  !  Mr.  Madison  comes  not ;  may 
God  protect  him  !  Two  messengers,  covered  with  dust,  came 

to  bid  me  fly ;  but  I  wait  for  him At  this  late  hour 

a  wagon  has  been  procured  ;  I  have  filled  it  with  the  plate  and 
most  valuable  portable  articles  belonging  to  the  house ;  whether 
it  will  reach  its  destination,  the  Bank  of  Maryland,  or  fall  into 
the  hands  of  British  soldiery,  events  must  determine.  Our  kind 
friend,  Mr.  Carroll,  has  come  to  hasten  my  departure,  and  is  in 
a  very  bad  humor  with  me  because  I  insist  on  waiting  until  the 
large  picture  of  General  Washington  is  secured ;  and  it  requires 


198  TEN   YEAKS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

to  be  unscrewed  from  the  wall.  This  process  was  found  too 
tedious  for  these  perilous  moments  ;  I  have  ordered  the  frame  to 
be  broken  and  the  canvas  taken  out ;  it  is  done,  and  the  precious 
portrait  placed  in  the  hands  of  two  gentlemen  of  New  York  for 
safe-keeping.  And  now,  dear  sister,  1  must  leave  this  house  or 
the  retreating  army  will  make  me  a  prisoner  in  it,  by  filling  up 
the  road  I  am  directed  to  take.  When  I  shall  again  write  to 
you,  or  where  I  shall  be  to-morrow,  I  cannot  tell ! 

On  their  return,  the  President  and  Mrs.  Madison  occu- 
pied a  private  house  on  Pennsylvania  avenue  till  the 
White  House  was  repaired.  After  it  was  rebuilt  and  the 
treaty  of  peace  signed,  the  levees  given  in  the  East  Room, 
in  the  winter  of  1816,  are  said  to  have  been  the  most 
resplendent  ever  witnessed  in  Washington.  At  these, 
congregated  the  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  their 
gowns,  the  Diplomatic  Corps  in  glittering  regalia,  the 
Peace  Commissioners  and  the  officers  of  the  late  war  in 
full  dress,  and  the  queen  of  the  occasion  in  gorgeous  robes 
and  turban  and  bird  of  paradise  plumes. 

At  one  of  these  Presidential  banquets  Mrs.  Madison 
offered  Mr.  Clay  a  pinch  of  snuff  from  her  beautiful  box, 
taking  one  herself.  She  then  put  her  hand  in  her  pocket, 
took  out  a  bandanna  handkerchief,  applied  it  to  her  nose 
and  said :  "  Mr.  Clay,  this  is  for  rough  work,"  and  this, 
touching  the  few  remaining  grains  of  snuff  with  a  fine  lace 
handkerchief,  "  is  my  polisher."  This  anecdote  is  an  em- 
phatic comment  on  the  change  of  customs,  even  in  the 
most  polished  society.  If  Mrs.  Grant,  to-day,  were  to  per- 
petrate such  an  act  at  one  of  her  levees,  the  fact  that  it 
stands  recorded  against  the  graceful,  gracious  and  glorious 
Dolly  Madison  would  not  save  her  from  the  taunt  of  be- 
ing "underbred"  and  suggestive  of  the  land  of  " snuff 
dippers." 


"IF   I   JEST   KISSED   YOU."  199 

Another  story  of  Mrs.  Madison  illustrates  the  real  kind- 
ness of  her  heart.  Two  plain  old  ladies  from  the  West, 
halting  in  Washington  for  a  single  night,  yet  most  anxious 
to  behold  the  President's  famous  and  popular  wife  before 
their  departure,  meeting  an  old  gentleman  on  the  street, 
timidly  asked  him  to  show  them  the  way  to  the  Presi- 
dent's house.  Happening  to  be  an  acquaintance  of  Mrs. 
Madison,  he  conducted  them  to  the  White  House.  The 
President's  family  were  at  breakfast,  but  Mrs.  Mad- 
ison good-naturedly  came  out  to  them  wearing  a  dark 
gray  dress  with  a  white  apron,  and  a  linen  handkerchief 
pinned  around  her  neck.  Not  overcome  by  her  plumage, 
and  set  at  ease  by  her  welcome,  when  they  rose  to  depart 
one  said  :  "  P'rhaps  you  would  n't  mind  if  I  jest  kissed 
you,  to  tell  my  gals  about." 

Mrs.  Madison,  not  to  be  outdone,  kissed  each  of  her 
guests,  who  planted  their  spectacles  on  their  noses  with 
delight,  and  then  departed. 

Poverty  compelled  Martha  Jefferson  to  part  with  Mon- 
ticello  after  her  father's  death,  and  the  same  cruel  foe 
forced  Mrs.  Madison  to  sell  Montpelier  in  her  widowhood. 

A  special  message  of  President  Jackson  to  Congress, 
concerning  the  contents  of  a  letter  from  Mrs.  Madison, 
offering  to  the  government  her  husband's  manuscript 
record  of  the  debates  in  Congress  of  the  convention  dur- 
ing the  years  1782-1787,  caused  Congress  to  purchase  it 
of  her,  as  a  national  work,  for  the  sum  of  thirty  thousand 
dollars.  In  a  subsequent  act  Congress  gave  to  Mrs.  Mad- 
ison the  honorary  privilege  of  copyright  in  foreign  coun- 
tries. The  degree  of  veneration  in  which  she  was  held 
may  be  judged  by  the  fact  that  Congress  conferred  upon 
Mrs.  Madison  the  franking  privilege  and  unanimously 


200  TEN  TEAKS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

voted  her  a  seat  upon  the  Senate  floor  whenever  she  hon- 
ored it  with  her  presence  ;  two  privileges  never  conferred 
upon  any  other  American  woman. 

The  last  twelve  years  of  her  life  were  spent  in  Wash- 
ington, in  a  house  still  standing  on  Lafayette  square. 
Here,  on  New  Year's  day  and  Fourth  of  July,  she  held 
public  receptions,  the  dignitaries  of  the  nation,  after 
paying  their  respects  at  the  White  House,  passing  directly 
to  the  abode  of  the  venerable  widow  of  the  fourth  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States — a  woman  who  had  honored 
her  high  station  by  her  high  qualities  more  than  it  could 
possibly  honor  her. 

She  died  at  her  home,  Lafayette  square,  Washington, 
July,  1849,  holding  her  mental  faculties  unimpaired  to 
the  last.  In  her  later  days,  while  suffering  from  great 
debility,  she  took  extreme  delight  in  having  old  letters 
read  to  her,  whose  associations  were  so  remote  that  they 
were  unknown  to  all  about,  but  yet  which  brought  back 
to  her  her  own  beloved  past.  She  delighted,  also,  in 
listening  to  the  reading  of  the  Bible — and  it  was  while 
hearing  a  portion  of  the  gospel  of  St.  John  that  she  passed 
in  peace  into  her  last  sleep. 

Mrs.  Madison  was  not  the  last  President's  wife  whom 
the  dangers  of  war  exalted  to  heroism.  Yet,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  she  has  been  followed  by  a  line  of  ladies  of 
average  gifts  and  graces,  whose  domestic  virtues  and 
negative  characters  are  seen  but  dimly  through  the  re- 
flected glory  of  their  President  husbands'  administrations. 
The  faint  outline  which  we  catch  of  Mrs.  Monroe  is  that 
of  a  serene  and  aristocratic  woman,  too  well  bred  ever  to 
be  visibly  moved  by  anything— at  least  in  public.  She 
was  Elizabeth  Kortright,  of  New  York — an  ex-British 


SAVED  FROM  THE  GUILLOTINE.         201 

officer's  daughter,  a  belle  who  was  ridiculed  by  her  gaj 
friends  for  having  refused  more  brilliant  adorers  to  accept 
a  plain  member  of  Congress. 

During  Mr.  Monroe's  ministry  to  Paris,  she  was  called 
"  la  belle  Americaine"  and  entertained  the  most  stately 
society  of  the  old  regime  with  great  elegance.  The  only 
individual  act  which  has  survived  her  career,  as  the  wife 
of  the  American  minister  to  France,  is  her  visit  to  Madame 
Lafayette  in  prison.  The  indignities  heaped  on  this  grand 
and  truly  great  woman,  were  hard  to  be  borne  by  an 
American,  to  whom  the  very  name  of  Lafayette  was  en- 
deared. The  carriage  of  the  American  minister  appeared 
at  the  jail.  Mrs.  Monroe  was  at  last  conducted  to  the 
cell  of  the  emaciated  prisoner.  The  Marchioness,  behold- 
ing the  stranger  sister  woman,  sank  at  her  feet,  too  weak 
to  utter  her  joy.  That  very  afternoon  she  was  to  have 
been  beheaded.  Instead  of  the  messenger  commanding 
her  to  prepare  for  the  guillotine,  she  beheld  a  woman  and 
a  friend  !  From  the  first  moment  of  its  existence  the 
American  Republic  had  prestige  in  France.  The  visit  of 
the  American  ambassadress  changed  the  minds  of  the 
blood-thirsty  tyrants.  Madame  Lafayette  was  liberated 
the  next  morning, — she  gladly  accepted  her  own  freedom, 
that  she  might  go  and  share  the  dungeon  of  her  husband. 

The  same  quiet  splendor  of  spirit  and  bearing  reigned 
through  Mrs.  Monroe  in  the  unfinished  "  White  House." 
Mrs.  Madison  maintained  the  courtly  forms  copied  from 
foreign  courts — but  the  richness  of  her  temperament  and 
the  warmth  of  her  heart  pervaded  all  the  atmosphere 
around  her  with  a  genial  glow.  ,  Mrs.  Monroe  mingled 
very  little  in  the  society  of  Washington,  and  secluded 
herself  from  the  public  gaze,  except  when  the  duties  of 


202  TEN    TEAKS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

her  position  compelled  her  to  appear.  Her  love  was  for 
silence,  obscurity,  peace,  not  for  bustle,  confusion,  or 
glare.  Yet,  even  in  her  courtly  reign,  "  the  dear  people  " 
were  many  and  strong  enough  to  arise  and  push  on  to 
their  rights  in  the  "  people's  house." 

James  Fennimore  Cooper  has  left  on  record  a  letter  de- 
scribing a  state  dinner  and  levee,  during  Mr.  Monroe'e 
time,  and  any  one  who  has  survived  a  latter-day  jam  at 
the  President's  house,  will  say  it  was  precisely  what  a 
Presidential  reception  w'as  in  the  stately  Monroe  day.  Says 
Mr.  Cooper: 

The  evening  at  the  White  House,  or  drawing-room,  as  it  is 
sometimes  pleasantly  called,  is  in  fact,  a  collection  of  all  classes 
of  people  who  choose  to  go  to  the  trouble  and  expense  of  ap- 
pearing in  dresses  suited  to  an  evening  party.  I  am  not  sure 
that  even  dress  is  very  much  regarded,  for  I  certainly  saw  a 

good  many  there  in  boots Squeezing  through  a  crowd, 

we  achieved  a  passage  to  a  part  of  the  room  where  Mrs.  Monro,. 
was  standing,  surrounded  by  a  bevy  of  female  friends.  After 
making  our  bow  here,  we  sought  the  President.  The  latter  had 
posted  himself  at  the  top  of  the  room,  where  he  remained  most 
of  the  evening,  shaking  hands  with  all  who  approached.  Near 
him  stood  the  Secretaries  and  a  great  number  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished men  of  the  nation.  Besides  these,  one  meets  here  a 
great  variety  of  people  in  other  conditions  of  life.  I  have 
known  a  cartman  to  leave  his  horse  in  the  street,  and  go  into 
the  reception  room,  to  shake  hands  with  the  President.  He 
offended  the  good  taste  of  all  present,  because  it  was  not  thought 
decent  that  a  laborer  should  come  in  a  dirty  dress  on  such  an 
occasion ;  but  while  he  made  a  mistake  in  this  particular,  he 
proved  how  well  he  understood  the  difference  between  govern- 
ment and  society. 

It  is  very  doubtful,  however,  if  a  cartman  would  have 


BORROWING  CLOTHES  FOR  A  RECEPTION.     203 

found  it  possible  to  have  paid  his  respects  to  the  govern- 
ment in  the  person  of  Washington,  in  such  a  plight.  Such 
a  visitor  in  the  Blue  Room,  to-day,  would  make  a  sen- 
sation. In  spite  of  the  "cartman,"  we  read  that  at  Mrs. 
Monroe's  drawing-rooms  "elegance  of  dress  was  abso- 
lutely required."  On  one  occasion,  Mr.  Monroe  refused 
admission  to  a  near  relative,  who  happened  not  to  have  a 
suit  of  small-clothes  and  silk  hose,  in  which  to  present 
himself  at  a  public  reception.  He  was  driven  to  the  ne- 
cessity of  borrowing. 

When  the  Monroes  entered  the  White  House,  it  had  been 
partly  rebuilt  from  its  burning  in  1814,  but  it  could  boast 
of  few  comforts,  and  no  elegance.  The  ruins  of  the  for- 
mer building  lay  in  heaps  about  the  mansion ;  the  grounds 
were  not  fenced,  and  the  street  before  it  in  such  a  con- 
dition that  it  was  an  hourly  sight  to  see  several  four-horse 
wagons  "stalled"  before  the  house.  In  the  early  part  of 
the  administration,  the  East  Room  was  the  play-room  of 
Mrs.  Monroe's  daughters.  It  was  during  her  reign  here 
that  the  stately  furniture,  which  now  stands  in  the  East 
Room,  was  bought  by  the  government  in  Paris.  Each  ar- 
ticle was  surmounted  by  the  royal  crown  of  Louis  XVTIL 
This  was  removed,  and  the  American  Eagle  took  its  place. 
These  chairs  and  sofas  have  more  than  once  been  "made 
over,  good  as  new,"  but  the  original  eagles  remain,  more 
brightly  burnished  than  ever.  May  they  gleam  forever, 
and  let  no  "modern  furniture,"  with  surface  gilding  and 
thin  veneering,  take  the  place  of  this  historic  furniture, 
in  the  Nation's  house,  fraught,  as  it  is,  with  so  many  mem- 
ories of  the  illustrious  dead. 


CHAPTER  XXH. 

NOTED  WOMEN  OF  WASHINGTON— A  CHAPTER  OF  GOSSIP. 

Quaint  Habiliments — Portrait  of  a  President's  Wife — A  Travelling  Lady — 
Life  in  Russia — A  Model  American  Minister — A  Long  and  Lonely  Jour- 
ney— When  Napoleon  Returned  from  Elba — The  Court  of  St.  James — 
"  Mrs.  Adams'  Ball  " — Mr.  John  Ogg's  Little  "  Poem  " — Verses  which 
Our  Fathers  Endured — Peculiar  Waists — Costume  of  an  Ancient  Belle — 
Fearful  and  Wonderful  Attire  of  a  Beau—"  A  Suit  of  Steel  "— "  Smiling 
for  the  Presidency" — Attending  Two  Balls  the  Same  Evening — An  As- 
cendant Star— A  Man  who  Hid  his  Feelings— The  Candidate  at  a  Cattle 
Show— "She  Often  Combed  Your  Head"— "I  Suppose  She  Combs 
Yours  Now" — Giving  "Tone"  to  the  Whole  Country — A  Circle  of 
"Rare"  Women — A  "Perpetual  Honor  to  Womanhood" — Charles's 
Opinion  of  His  Mother — How  a  Lady  "  Amused"  Her  Declining  Days — 
Lafayette's  Visit  to  Washington — His  Farewell  to  America — "  A  Species 
of  Irregular  Diary" — "  For  the  Benefit  of  My  Grandfather" — Mrs.  An- 
drew Jackson — A  Woman's  Influence — Politics  and  Piety  Disagree — 
Why  the  General  Didn't  Join  the  Church— A  Head  "  Full  of  Politics"— 
Swearing  Some — The  President  Becomes  a  Good  Boy — Domestic  Ten- 
dencies—His Greatest  Loss— Sad  News  from  the  Hermitage. 

THE  portrait  which  Leslie  gives  us  of  Louisa  Catharine 
Johnson,  the  wife  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  reminds 
us  in  outline  and  costume  of  the  Empress  Josephine  and 
the  Court  of  the  first  Napoleon. 

She  wears  the  scanty  robe  of  the  period,  its  sparse  out- 
line revealing  the  slender  elegance  of  the  figure,  the  low 
waist  and  short  sleeves  trimmed  with  lace  and  edged  with 
pearls.  One  long  glove  is  drawn  nearly  to  the  elbow,  the 
other  is  held  in  the  hand,  which  droops  carelessly  over  the 
back  of  the  chair.  There  is  a  necklace  round  the  throat. 


SIX   TEARS   IN   RUSSIA.  205 

From  over  one  shoulder,  and  thrown  over  her  lap,  is 
a  man  tie  of  exquisite  lace.  The  close  bands  of  the  hair, 
edged  with  a  few  deft  curls,  and  fastened  high  at  the  back 
with  a  coronet  comb,  reveals  the  classic  outline  of  the 
small  head ;  the  face  is  oval,  the  features  delicate  and 
vivacious ;  the  eyes,  looking  far  on,  are  beautiful  in  their 
clear,  spiritual  gaze.  This  is  the  portrait  of  a  President's 
wife,  whose  early  advantages  of  society  and  culture  far 
transcended  those  of  almost  any  other  woman  of  her  time. 

The  daughter  of  Joshua  Johnson,  of  Maryland,  she  was 
born,  educated  and  married  in  London.  As  a  bride  she 
went  to  the  court  of  Berlin,  to  which  her  husband  was 
appointed  American  Minister  on  the  accession  of  his 
father  to  the  Presidency.  In  1801  she  went  to  Boston,  to 
dwell  with  her  husband's  people,  but  very  soon  came  to 
Washington  as  the  wife  of  a  senator.  On  the  accession 
of  Madison,  leaving  her  two  elder  children  with  their 
grandparents,  she  took  a  third,  not  two  years  of  age,  and 
embarked  with  her  husband  for  Russia,  whither  he  went 
as  United  States  Minister. 

Nothing  could  be  more  graphic  than  the  diary  which 
she  kept  on  this  voyage.  It  consumed  three  months. 
Summer  merged  into  winter  before  the  little  wave-and- 
wind-beaten  bark  touched  that  then  inhospitable  shore. 
The  first  American  Minister  to  Russia,  Mr.  Adams  lived 
in  St.  Petersburg  for  six  years,  "  poor,  studious,  ambitious 
and  secluded."  Happily  for  him,  his  wife  possessed  men- 
tal and  spiritual  resources,  which  lifted  her  above  all  de- 
pendence on  surface  or  conventional  attention  from  the 
world,  and  made  her  in  every  respect  the  meet  companion 
of  a  scholar  and  patriot. 

In  the  wake  of  furious  war,  through  storm  and  snow- 


208  TEN  TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

drifts,  through  a  country  ravaged  by  passion  and  strife, 
she  traveled  alone,  with  her  only  child,  from  St.  Petersburg 
to  Paris,  whither  she  went  to  meet  her  husband.  Here 
she  witnessed  the  storm  of  delight  which  greeted  Napoleon 
on  his  return  from  Elba.  Mr.  Adams  was  appointed  Minis- 
ter to  the  Court  of  St.  James,  and  after  a  separation  of  six 
years  Mrs.  Adams  was  re-united  to  her  children. 

In  1817  Mr.  Monroe,  on  his  accession  to  the  Presidency, 
immediately  appointed  John  Quincy  Adams  Secretary  of 
State,  when  Mrs.  Adams  returned  with  him  to  Washington. 
For  eight  years  she  was  the  elegant  successor  of  Mrs. 
Madison,  who  filled  the  same  position  with  so  much  dis- 
tinction. No  one  was  excluded  from  her  house  on  account 
of  political  hostility — all  sectional  bitterness  and  party 
strife  were  banished  from  her  drawing-rooms. 

As  the  wife  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  Mrs.  Adams  gave 
a  famous  ball,  whose  fame  still  lives  in  Washington. 
1<  Mrs.  Adams's  Ball "  lives  in  history  as  well  as  in  the 
memories  of  a  few  still  living.  It  was  given  January  8th, 
1824,  in  commemoration  of  General  Jackson's  victory  at 
New  Orleans.  It  was  announced  in  advance  by  the  news- 
papers, and  on  the  morning  before  its  occurrence  its  splen- 
dor was  anticipated  and  celebrated  by  the  following  lines 
written  by  Mr.  John  Agg,  who  has  passed  into  oblivion, 
although  his  early  poems  in  his  native  England  were  said 
to  have  been  taken  for  Byron's,  and  although  he  was 
one  of  the  first  of  newspaper  correspondents  and  the 
first  short-hand  reporter  ever  in  Washington. 

The  ladies  referred  to  in  the  following  lines  were  among 
the  most  celebrated  beauties  of  their  day,  many  of  whose 
descendants  still  live  in  Washington. 


THE  LABORS  OF  A  VERSIFIER.          207 

MRS.   ADAMS'S   BALL. 

[From  the  Washington  Republican,  Jan.  8th,  1824.] 

Wend  you  with  the  world  to-night  ? 

Brown  and  fair,  and  wise  and  witty, 

Eyes  that  float  in  seas  of  light, 

Laughing  mouths  and  dimples  pretty, 

Belles  and  matrons,  maids  and  madams, 

All  are  gone  to  Mrs.  Adams's. 

There  the  mist  of  the  future,  the  gloom  of  the  past, 

All  melt  into  light  at  the  warm  glance  of  pleasure  ; 

And  the  only  regret  is,  lest  melting  too  fast, 

Mammas  should  move  off  in  the  midst  of 

Wend  you  with  the  world  to-night  ? 

Sixty  grey,  and  giddy  twenty, 

Flirts  that  court,  and  prudes  that  slight, 

Stale  coquettes  and  spinsters  plenty.  * 

Mrs.  Sullivan  is  there 

With  all  the  charms  that  nature  lent  her ; 

Gay  M'Kim,  with  city  air, 

And  charming  Gales,  and  Vandeventer  ; 

Forsyth,  with  her  group  of  graces  ; 

Both  the  Crowninshields  in  blue  ; 

The  Peirces,  with  their  heavenly  faces, 

And  eyes  like  suns,  that  dazzle  through  ; 

Belles  and  matrons,  maids  and  madams, 

All  are  gone  to  Mrs.  Adams's. 

Wend  you  with  the  world  to-night? 
East  and  West,  and  South  and  North, 
Form  a  constellation  bright, 
A«d  pour  a  blended  brilliance  forth. 
See  the  tide  of  fashion  flowing, 
'Tis  the  noon  of  beauty's  reign ; 
Webster,  Hamiltons  are  going, 
Eastern  Lloyd  and  Southern  Hayna  ; 
Western  Thomas,  gaily  smiling ; 
Borland,  nature's  protege  ; 


208  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

Young  De  Wolfe,  all  hearts  beguiling  ; 
Morgan,  Benton,  Brown  and  Lee  ; 
Belles  and  matrons,  maids  and  madams, 
All  are  gone  to  Mrs.  Adams's. 

Wend  you  with  the  world  to-night? 

Where  blue  eyes  are  brightly  glancing, 

While  to  measures  of  delight 

Fairy  feet  are  deftly  dancing ;  , 

Where  the  young  Euphrosyne 

Eeigns,  the  sovereign  of  the  scene, 

Chasing  gloom  and  courting  glee 

With  the  merry  tambourine. 

Many  a  form  of  fairy  birth, 

Many  a  Hebe  yet  unwon  ; 

Wirt,  a  gem  of  purest  worth, 

Lively,  laughing  Pleas anton, 

Vails  and  Taylor  will  be  there ; 

Gay  Monroe,  so  debonnaire, 

Helen,  pleasure's  harbinger, 

Ramsay,  Cottringers,  and  Kerr ; 

Belles  and  matrons,  maids  and  madams, 

All  are  gone  to  Mrs.  Adams's. 

Wend  you  with  the  world  to-night? 
Juno  in  her  court  presides, 
Mirth  and  melody  invite, 
Fashion  points  and  pleasure  guides ! 
Haste  away  then,  seize  the  hour, 
Shun  the  thorn  and  pluck  the  flower. 
Youth,  in  all  its  spring-time  blooming, 
Age,  the  guise  of  youth  assuming, 
Wit,  through  all  its  circle  gleaming, 
Glittering  wealth,  and  beauty  beaming ; 
Belles  and  matrons,  maids  and  madams, 
All  are  gone  to  Mrs.  Adams's. 


The   picture  of  this  celebrated  entertainment  is  stiB 


THE  GENERAL'S  FLIRTATION.  209 

extant,  and  shows  the  belles  in  the  full  dress  of  the  period, 
when  the  dress  waists  ended  just  under  the  arms,  and 
its  depth,  front  and  back,  was  not  over  three  or  four 
inches.  The  skirts,  narrow  and  plain,  were  terminated 
by  a  flounce  just  resting  on  the  floor.  The  gloves  reached 
to  the  elbow,  and  were  of  such  fine  kid  that  they  were 
often  imported  in  the  shell  of  an  English  walnut.  Slip- 
pers and  silk  stockings  of  the  color  of  the  dress  were 
worn,  crossed  and  tied  with  gay  ribbons  over  the  instep. 
The  hair  was  combed  high,  fastened  with  a  tortoise-shell 
comb — the  married  ladies  wearing  ostrich  feathers  and 
turbans.  While  the  belles  were  thus  attired,  their  beaux 
were  decked  in  blue  coats,  and  gilt  buttons,  with  white 
or  buff  waistcoats,  white  neck-ties  and  high  "  chokers," 
silk  stockings  and  pumps. 

In  this  picture  Daniel  Webster,  Clay  and  Calhoun  are 
conspicuous  in  this  dress.  General  Jackson,  wearing 
bowed  pumps,  with  Mrs.  Adams  on  his  arm,  make  the 
central  figures  of  the  assembly.  Mrs.  Adams  wore  "  a 
suit  of  steel."  The  dress  was  composed  of  steel  llama ; 
her  ornaments  for  head,  throat  and  arms,  were  all  of  cut 
steel,  producing  a  dazzling  effect.  General  Jackson's 
entire  devotion  to  her,  during  the  evening,  was  the  sub- 
ject of  comment.  After  the  manner  of  to-day,  it  was  de- 
clared that  he  was  "  smiling  for  the  Presidency."  He 
was  the  lion  of  the  evening.  All  the  houses  of  the  first 
ward  were  illuminated  in  his  honor.  Bonfires  made  the 
streets  light  as  day,  and  the  "  sovereign  people  "  shouted 
his  name  and  fame.  The  same  evening,  he  attended  a 
ball  given  by  the  famous  dancing-master,  jCarusi,  and  fin- 
ished the  festivities,  celebrating  his  glory  by  the  side  of 
the  reigning  lady,  the  wife  of  the  Secretary  of  State. 

14 


210  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

That  night  fixed  his  presidential  star  in  the  ascendency. 
A  few  days  later  the  name  of  Calhoun  was  withdrawn  as  the 
nominee  of  his  party,  and  that  of  Jackson  put  in  its  place. 
The  house,  a  double  one,  in  which  this  famous  ball  was 
given,  still  stands  unaltered,  on  F  street,  opposite  the 
Ebbitt  House.  A  portion  of  it  was  long  occupied  as  lodg- 
ings by  Hon.  Charles  Sumner. 

Through  fiery  opposition,  John  Quincy  Adams  was 
elected  President.  From  the  time  she  became  mistress  of 
the  President's  house,  failing  health  inclined  Mrs.  Adams 
to  seek  seclusion,  but  she  still  continued  to  preside  at 
public  receptions.  Her  vivacity  and  pleasing  manners 
did  much  to  warm  the  chill  caused  by  Mr.  Adams'  apathy 
or  apparent  coldness.  Those  who  knew  him,  declared 
that  he  had  the  warmest  heart  and  the  deepest  sympathies, 
but  he  had  an  unfortunate  way  of  hiding  them.  It  is 
told  that  when  he  was  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  his 
friends  persuaded  him  to  go  to  a  cattle  show.  Among 
the  persons  who  ventured  to  address  him,  was  a  respecta- 
ble farmer  who  impulsively  exclaimed  :  "  Mr.  Adams,  I 
am  very  glad  to  see  you.  My  wife,  when  she  was  a  gal, 
lived  in  your  father's  family  ;  you  were  then  a  little  boy, 
and  she  has  often  combed  your  head." 

"  Well,"  said  Mr.  Adams,  in  a  harsh  voice,  "  I  suppose 
she  combs  yours  now  ?  " 

The  poor  farmer  slunk  back  extinguished.  If  he  gave 
John  Quincy  his  vote,  he  was  more  magnanimous  than 
the  average  citizen  of  to-day  would  be  to  so  rude  a  can- 
didate. 

A  writer  of  her  time  speaks  of  Mrs.  Adams'  "  enchant- 
ing, elegant  and  intellectual  regime"  declaring  that  it 
should  give  tone  to  the  whole  country.  Her  fine  culture, 


TAKING  SOLOMON'S  ADVICE.  211 

intellectual  tastes,  and  charming  social  qualities,  combined 
to  attract  about  her  a  circle  of  rare  and  distinguished 
women.  Among  these  were  Mrs.  Richard  Rush,  Mrs.  Van 
Rensselaer,  the  wife  of  the  Patroon,  and  Mrs.  Edward  Liv- 
ingston. Notwithstanding  the  opposition  of  her  husband's 
politics,  Mrs.  Livingston  was  Mrs.  Adams'  most  intimate 
friend  ;  a  lady  whom  any  land  might  be  proud  to  claim, 
and  whose  memory  lives  a  perpetual  honor  to  womanhood. 
Mrs.  Adams'  son,  Charles  Francis  Adams,  writing  of  his 
mother  in  1839,  says  : 

"  The  attractions  of  great  European  capitals,  and  the  dissipa- 
tions consequent  upon  high  official  stations  at  home,  though 
continued  through  that  part  of  her  life  when  habits  become  the 
most  fixed,  have  done  nothing  to  change  the  natural  elegance 

of  her  manners,  nor  the  simplicity  of  her  tastes To 

the  world,  Mrs.  Adams  presents  a  fine  example  of  the  possi- 
bility of  retiring  from  the  circles  of  fashion,  and  the  external 
fascinations  of  life,  in  time  still  to  retain  a  taste  for  the  more 
quiet,  though  less  showy  attractions  of  the  domestic  hearth. 

A  strong  literary  taste,  which  has  caused  her  to  read  much, 
and  a  capacity  for  composition  in  prose  and  verse,  have  been 
resources  for  her  leisure  moments  ;  not  with  a  view  to  that  ex- 
hibition which  renders  such  accomplishments  too  often  fatal  to 
the  more  delicate  shades  of  feminine  character,  but  for  her  own 
gratification,  and  that  of  a  few  relatives  and  friends. 

The  late  President  Adams  used  to  draw  much  amusement,  in 
his  latest  years  at  Quincy,  from  the  accurate  delineation  of 
"Washington  manners  and  character,  which  was  regularly  trans- 
mitted, for  a  considerable  period,  in  letters  from  her  pen.  And 
if,  as  time  advances,  she  becomes  gradually  less  able  to  devote 
her  sense  of  sight  to  reading  and  writing,  her  practice  of  the 
more  homely  virtues  of  manual  industry,  so  highly  commended 
in  the  final  chapter  of  the  book  of  Solomon,  still  amuses  the  de- 
clining days  of  her  varied  career." 


212  TEN  YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

Mrs.  Adams  was  the  "  lady  of  the  White  House  "  when, 
in  1825,  Lafayette  visited  the  United  States,  and,  at  the 
invitation  of  the  President,  spent  the  last  weeks  of  his 
stay  at  the  "  Executive  Mansion,"  from  which,  on  the 
seventh  of  September,  he  bade  his  pathetic  farewell  to  the 
land  of  his  adoption. 

Notwithstanding  the  rare  qualities  of  mind  and  heart 
which  she  brought  to  it,  and  the  popularity  which  she 
attained  in  it,  her  son  writes  : 

"  Her  residence  in  the  President's  house  I  have  always  con- 
sidered as  the  period  she  enjoyed  the  least  during  the  public 
career  of  my  father.  All  this  appears  more  or  less  in  her  letters, 
and  especially  in  a  species  of  irregular  diary  which  she  kept  foi 
some  time  at  Washington,  for  the  benefit  of  my  grandfather, 
John  Adams,  then  living  at  Quincy,  and  of  her  brother,  who 
was  residing  in  New  Orleans." 

Mrs.  Adams  died  May  14,  1852,  and  was  buried  beside 
her  husband,  in  the  family  burying  ground  at  Quincy, 
Massachusetts. 

In  mental  attainments,  there  was  an  absolute  contrast 
between  Mrs.  Adams  and  Rachel  Donaldson,  the  next 
President's  wife. 

Mrs.  Andrew  Jackson  never  entered  the  President's 
house  in  visible  form,  for  she  had  passed  from  earth  be- 
fore her  husband  became  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the 
Nation.  Yet  it  is  doubtful  if  the  wife  of  any  other  Pres- 
ident ever  exerted  so  powerful  and  positive  an  influence 
over  an  administration  in  life  as  did  she  in  death. 

Born  and  reared  on  the  frontiers  of  civilization,  her 
educational  advantages  had  been  most  scanty,  and  she 


A  WOMAN'S  INFLUENCE.  213 

never  mastered  more  than  the  simplest  rudiments  of  knowl- 
edge. Yet,  looking  on  her  pictured  face,  it  is  easy  to 
fathom  and  define  the  power  which,  through  life  and  be- 
yond the  grave,  held  the  master  will  of  the  husband  who 
loved  her  in  sweet  abeyance.  It  was  a  power  purely 
womanly — the  affectional  force  of  a  woman  of  exalted 
moral  nature  and  deep  affections.  It  was  impossible  that 
such  a  woman  should  use  arts  to  win  love,  and  equally 
impossible  that  she  should  not  be  loved.  Men  would  love 
her  instinctively,  through  the  best  and  highest  in  their 
natures. 

With  the  wound  of  her  loss  fresh  and  bleeding,  Presi- 
dent Jackson  entered  upon  his  high  office.  Thus  in  death 
Rachel  Jackson  became  the  tutelary  saint  of  the  Presi- 
dent's house.  Wherever  he  went,  he  wore  her  miniature. 
No  matter  what  had  been  the  duties  or  pleasures  of  the 
day,  when  the  man  came  back  to  himself,  and  to  his  lonely 
room,  her  Bible  and  her  picture  took  the  place  of  the 
beloved  face  and  tender  presence  which  had  been  the  one 
charm  and  love  of  his  heroic  life. 

No  other  President's  wife  looks  down  upon  posterity 
with  so  winsome  and  innocent  a  gaze  as  Rachel  Jackson. 
A  cap  of  soft  lace  surmounts  the  dark  curls  which  cluster 
about  her  forehead,  falling  veil-like  over  her  shoulders. 
The  full  lace  ruffle  around  her  neck  is  not  fastened  with 
even  a  brooch,  and,  save  the  long  pendants  in  her  ears, 
she  wears  no  ornaments.  Her  throat  is  massive,  her  lips 
full  and  sweet  in  expression,  her  brow  broad  and  rounded, 
her  eye-brows  arching  above  a  pair  of  large,  liquid,  gazelle- 
like  eyes,  whose  soft,  feminine  outlook  is  sure  to  win  and 
to  disarm  the  beholder.  This  remarkable  loveliness  of 
spirit  and  person  was  the  source  of  fatal  sorrow  to  Rachel 


214  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

Jackson.  It  won  her  reverence,  amounting  almost  to 
adoration,  but  it  made  her  also  the  victim  of  jealousy, 
envy  and  malice.  These  made  the  shadow  always  flung 
athwart  the  sunshine  of  love  which  made  her  life. 

She  was  a  woman  of  deep  personal  piety,  and  longed 
for  nothing  so  much  as  the  time  when  her  husband  would 
be  done  with  political  honors,  as  he  had  assured  her  that 
then,  and  not  till  then,  could  he  "be  a  Christian."  The 
following  anecdote,  told  by  the  late  Judge  Bryan  of  Wash- 
ington, illustrates  the  piety  of  her  character  and  the  pro- 
found personal  influence  she  held  over  the  moral  nature  of 
her  husband : 

The  father  of  Judge  Bryan,  an  intimate  friend  of  Mrs. 
Jackson,  was  on  a  visit  to  the  Hermitage.  Mrs.  Jackson 
talked  to  him  of  religion,  gave  him  a  hymn  to  read  that 
was  sung  at  a  late  funeral,  and  said  the  General  was  dis- 
posed to  be  religious,  and  she  believed  would  join  the 
church  but  for  the  coming  presidential  election  ;  that  his 
head  was  now  full  of  politics.  While  they  were  convers- 
ing, the  General  came  in  with  a  newspaper  in  his  hand,  to 
which  he  referred  as  denouncing  his  mother  as  a  camp  fol- 
lower. "  This  is  too  bad !  "  he  exclaimed,  rising  into  a 
passion  and  swearing  terribly  as  our  "  army  in  Flanders." 
When  nearly  out  of  breath,  his  wife  approached  him  and, 
looking  him  in  his  face,  simply  said  :  Mr.  Jackson.  He 
was  subdued  in  an  instant,  and  did  not  utter  another  oath. 

In  the  same  presidential  contest  this  gentle  being  did 
not  herself  escape  calumny.  When  her  husband  was 
elected  President  of  the  United  States,  she  said:  "For 
Mr.  Jackson's  sake,  I  am  glad;  for  my  own,  I  never 
wished  it."  To  an  intimate  friend  she  said  in  all  sincerity : 
"  I  assure  you  I  would  rather  be  a  door-keeper  in  the  house 


LISTENING   TO   A   TERRIBLE    TALE.  215 

of  my  God  than  to  dwell  in  that  palace  in  Washington." 
Dearer  to  her  heart  was  the  Hermitage,  with  the  little 
chapel  built  by  her  husband  for  her  own  especial  use,  than 
all  the  prospective  pomp  of  the  President's  house. 

She  was  a  mother  to  every  servant  on  the  estate,  and 
anxious  to  make  every  one  comfortable  during  her  ab- 
sence in  Washington.  She  made  numerous  journeys  to 
Nashville,  to  purchase,  for  all  left  behind,  their  winter  sup- 
plies. Worn  out,  after  a  day's  shopping,  she  went  to  the 
parlor  of  the  Nashville  Inn  to  rest.  While  she  waited 
there  for  the  family  coach  which  was  to  convey  her  back 
to  the  Hermitage,  she  heard  her  own  name  spoken  in  the 
adjoining  room.  She  was  compelled  to  hear,  while  she  sat 
there,  pale  and  smitten,  the  false  and  cruel  calumnies 
against  herself  which  had  so  recklessly  been  used  during 
the  campaign  to  defeat  her  husband,  and  which  he  had 
zealously  excluded  from  her  sight  in  the  newspapers. 
Here  the  arrow  came  back  from  the  misfortune  of  her 
youth,  when  she  married  a  man  intellectually  and  morally 
her  inferior,  from  whom  she  was  afterwards  divorced,  and 
it  entered  her  gentle  heart  too  deep  to  be  withdrawn. 
She  was  seized  almost  immediately  with  spasmodic  disease 
of  the  heart.  Everything  possible  was  done  for  her  re- 
lief without  avail.  A  few  nights  afterwards  she  exclaimed : 
"  I  am  fainting,"  was  lifted  to  her  bed,  and  in  a  few  mo- 
ments had  breathed  her  last  sigh. 

The  grief  of  her  husband  amounted  to  agony.  It 
seemed  for  a  time  that  his  frame  must  break  under  such 
grief,  but  he  lived  to  worship  and  serve  her  memory  for 
many  years.  December  23,  1828,  a  great  ball  and  ban- 
quet was  to  have  been  given  in  Nashville,  in  honor  of 
General  Jackson's  victory  at  New  Orleans.  The  whole 


216  TEN  YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

city  was  gay  with  preparations,  when  the  word  came  from 
the  Hermitage :  "  The  President's  wife  is  dead  !  " 

From  that  hour  her  husband  seemed  to  live  to  avenge 
her  wrongs  and  to  honor  her  memory.  Probably  into  no 
other  administration  of  the  government,  from  its  first  to 
the  present,  has  personal  feeling  had  so  much  to  do  with 
official  appointments  as  in  the  offices  emptied  and  filled 
by  Andrew  Jackson.  It  had  only  to  enter  his  suspicion 
that  a  man  had  failed  to  espouse  the  cause  of  the  beloved 
Rachel,  and  his  unlucky  official  head  immediately  came 
off.  It  was  told  him  that  Mr.  Watterson,  the  Librarian 
of  Congress,  had  told,  or  listened  to  something  to  the 
detriment  of  Mrs.  Jackson,  and  Mr.  Watterson  was  imme- 
diately deposed.  Thus  she  was  avenged  at  times,  probably 
in  acts  of  personal  injustice,  but  in  her  own  pure  tones 
she  spoke  through  him  in  all  the  higher  acts  of  his  ad- 
ministration. Thus  it  was  in  spirit  that  Rachel  Jackson 
lived  and  reigned  at  the  White  House. 

The  "  lovely  Emily  "  Donelson,  wife  of  Andrew  Jack- 
son Donelson,  Mrs.  Jackson's  nephew  and  adopted  son, 
with  Mrs.  Andrew  Jackson,  Jr.,  the  wife  of  another 
adopted  son,  shared  together  the  social  honors  of  the 
White  House  during  the  administration  of  President 
Jackson.  The  delicate  question  of  precedence  between 
them  was  thus  settled  by  him.  He  said  to  Mrs.  Jackson  : 
"  You,  my  dear,  are  mistress  of  the  Hermitage,  and  Emily 
is  hostess  of  the  White  House." 

This  Emily  was  of  remarkable  beauty,  strongly  resem- 
bling Mary,  Queen  of  Scots.  Her  manners  were  of  sin- 
gular fascination,  and  she  dressed  with  exquisite  taste. 
The  dress  she  wore  at  the  first  inauguration  is  still  pre- 
served. It  is  an  amber-colored  satin,  brocaded  with  bou- 


SMOKING  THE  PIPE  OF  PEACE.          217 

quets  of  rose-leaves  and  violets,  trimmed  with  white  lace 
and  pearls.  It  was  a  present  from  General  Jackson,  and 
even  at  that  day,  before"Jenkins"supposed  birth,  it  was 
described  in  every  paper  of  the  Union.  General  Jackson 
always  called  her  "my  daughter."  She  was  the  child  of 
Mrs.  Jackson's  brother,  and  married  to  her  cousin.  She 
was  quick  at /repartee,  and  possessed  the  rare  gift  of  being 
able  to  listen  gracefully.  A  foreign  minister  once  said: 
"  Madame,  you  dance  with  the  grace  of  a  Parisian.  I  can 
hardly  realize  that  you  were  educated  in  Tennessee." 

"  Count,  you  forget,"  was  the  spirited  reply,  "that  grace 
is  a  cosmopolite,  and,  like  a  wild  flower,  is  found  oftener  in 
the  woods  than  in  the  streets  of  a  city." 

Her  four  children  were  all  born  in  the  White  House. 
But  in  the  midst  of  its  honors,  in  the  flower  of  her  youth, 
"the  lovely  Emily"  went  out  from  its  portals  to  die.  She 
sought  the  softer  airs  of  "Tulip  Grove,"  her  home  in 
Tennessee,  where  she  died  of  consumption,  December, 
1836.  A  lady  gives  the  following  picture  of  an  evening 
scene  at  the  White  House,  in  the  early  part  of  Jackson's 
administration : 

"  The  large  parlor  was  scantily  furnished ;  there  was  light 
from  the  chandelier,  and  a  blazing  fire  in  the  grate ;  four  or  five 
ladies  sewing  around  it ;  Mrs.  Donelson,  Mrs.  Andrew  Jackson, 
Jr ,  Mrs.  Edward  Livingston.  Five  or  six  children  were  play- 
ing about,  regardless  of  documents  or  work-baskets.  At  the 
farther  end  of  the  room  sat  the  President,  in  his  arm-chair,  wear- 
ing a  long  loose  coat,  and  smoking  a  long  reed  pipe,  with  bowl 
of  red  clay — combining  the  dignity  of  the  patriarch,  monarch, 
and  Indian  chief.  Just  behind,  was  Edward  Livingston,  the 
Secretary  of  State,  reading  a  dispatch  from  the  French  Minister 
for  Foreign  Affairs.  The  ladies  glance  admiringly,  now  and 
then,  at  the  President,  who  listens,  waving  his  pipe  toward  the 
children,  when  they  become  too  boisterous." 


CHAPTER  XXin. 

SCENES  AT  THE  WHITE  HOUSE— MEN  AND  WOMEN  OF 
NOTE. 

Widows  "at  par" — Four  Sonless  Presidents — Supported  by  Flattery — A 
Delicate  Constitution — Living  to  a  Respectable  Age — Teaching  Her 
Grandsons  How  to  Fight — Inheriting  Religion — "  Another  Sensitive, 
Saintly  Soul ' ' — A  Pathetic  Reminiscence — A  Perfect  Gentlewoman — A 
Stately  Black -eyed  Matron — A  Lady  of  the  Old  School — Obeying  St. 
Paul— A  Woman  Who  "  Kept  Silence  " — "  Sarah  Knows  Where  It  Is  "-— 
Commanding  "  Superlative  Respect  " — An  English  Lady  "  Impressed  " 
— Three  Queens  in  the  Background — A  Very  Handsome  Woman — Retir- 
ing from  Active  Life — A  Lady's  Heroism — "My  Home,  the  Battle-field" 
—A  Man  Who  Kept  to  His  Post— A  Life  in  the  Savage  Wilderness— A 
Life's  Devotion — The  Colonel's  Brave  Wife — The  Conquering  Hero  from 
Mexico— Objecting  to  the  Presidency — "  Betty  Bliss  " — The  Reigning 
Lady — An  Overpowering  Reception — "  A  Bright  and  Beaming  Creature, 
Dressed  Simply  in  White  " — An  Inclination  for  Retirement — The  Pen- 
alty of  Greatness — Death  in  the  White  House — A  Wife's  Prayers — 
A  New  Regime — The  Clothier's  Apprentice  and  the  School  Teacher — The 
Future  President  Builds  His  Own  House — Becomes  a  Lawyer — Chosen 
Representative — Domestic  Happiness — Twenty-seven  Years  of  Married 
Life — "  A  Matron  of  Commanding  Person  " — A  Scarcity  of  Books — 
Home  "  Comforts  "  at  the  White  House — The  Memory  of  a  Loving  Wife — 
A  Well  Balanced  Young  Lady. 

rnHREE  of  the  first  four  Presidents  of  the  United  States 
J-  married  widows.  Jefferson,  Jackson,  Martin  Van 
Buren,  and  Tyler,  were  all  widowers  while  occupying  the 
White  House.  Neither  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison, 
or  Monroe,  left  sons  to  succeed  them.  The  wife  of  Mar- 
tin Van  Buren  died  in  her  youth,  long  before  he  had  grown 
to  high  political  honors.  She  had  been  dead  seventeen 


A  LADY'S  HEROISM.  219 

years  when,  as  the  eighth  President  of  the  United  States, 
he  entered  the  White  House.  During  his  administration, 
its  social  honors  were  dispensed  by  his  daughter-in-law, 
Mrs.  Abram  Van  Buren,  born  Angelica  Singleton,  of  South 
Carolina,  who  entered  upon  her  duties  and  pleasures  as  a 
bride.  She  was  of  illustrious  lineage,  possessed  finely 
cultivated  powers,  and  "  is  said  to  have  borne  the  fatigue 
of  a  three  hours'  levee  with  a  patience  and  pleasantry 
inexhaustible."  Doubtless  she  shared  some  of  the  help 
which  bore  Mr.  Monroe  triumphantly  through  a  similar 
scene. 

"Are  you  not  completely  worn  out?"  inquired  a  friend. 

"0,  no,"  replied  the  President.  "A  little  flattery  will 
support  a  man  through  great  fatigue." 

Anna  Symnes,  the  wife  of  President  Harrison,  a  lady 
of  strong  intelligence  and  deep  piety,  never  came  to  the 
White  House.  Her  delicate  health  forbade  it,  when -her 
husband  made  his  presidential  journey  to  Washington. 
In  a  little  more  than  a  month  he  was  borne  back  to  her, 
redeemed  by  death.  She  survived,  almost^  to  the  age  of 
ninety,  to  bid  sons  and  grandsons  Godspeed  when  they 
went  forth  to  fight  for  their  country — as  she  had  bidden 
her  gallant  husband  the  same,  when  he  left  her  amid 
her  flock  of  little  ones,  in  the  days  of  her  youth,  for  the 
same  cause.  From  time  to  time  sons  and  grandsons  came 
from  the  field  of  battle  to  receive  her  blessing  anew.  She 
said  to  one:  "Go,  my  son.  Your  country  needs  your 
services.  I  do  not.  I  feel  that  my  prayers  in  your  be- 
half will  be  heard,  and  that  you  will  return  in  safety." 
And  the  grandson  did  come  back  to  receive  her  final  bless- 
ing, after  many  hard-fought  battles.  Her  only  surviving 


220  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

son  writes :  "  That  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  religion  of 
Christ,  is  not  a  virtue  of  mine.  I  imbibed  it  at  my  moth- 
er's breast,  and  can  no  more  divest  myself  of  it,  than  of 
my  nature." 

Mrs.  Letitia  Christian  Tyler,  wife  of  the  tenth  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  was  another  sensitive,  saintly 
soul,  whose  children  rise  up  to-day,  and  call  her  blessed. 
She  died  in  the  White  House,  September  10,  1842.  Her 
daughter-in-law,  Mrs.  Robert  Tvler,  writing  of  the  event, 


"  Nothing  can  exceed  the  loneliness  of  this  large  and  gloomy 
mansion,  hung  with  black,  its  walls  echoing  only  sighs  and  groans. 
My  poor  husband  suffered  dreadfully  when  he  was  told  his 
mother's  eyes  were  constantly  turned  to  the  door,  watching  for 
him.  He  had  left  Washington  to  bring  me  and  the  children, 
at  her  request.  She  had  every  thing  about  her  to  awaken  love. 
She  was  beautiful  to  the  eye,  even  in  her  illness ;  her  com- 
plexion was  clear  as  an  infant's,  her  figure  perfect,  and  her 
hands  and  feet  were  the  most  delicate  I  ever  saw.  She  was 
refined  and  gentle  in  every  thing  that  she  said  and  did  ;  and, 
above  all,  a  pure  and  spotless  Christian.  She  was  my  beau  ideal 
of  a  perfect  gentlewoman. 

"  The  devotion  of  father  and  sons  to  her  was  most  affecting. 
I  don't  think  I  ever  saw  her  enter  a  room  that  all  three  did  not 
spring  up  to  lead  her  to  a  chair,  to  arrange  her  footstool,  and 
caress  and  pet  her." 

Mrs.  Robert  Tyler  presided  at  the  White  House  till  June, 
1844,  when  President  Tyler  was  married  to  Julia  Gardiner, 
of  Gardiner's  Island,  New  York,  a  youthful  beauty  and 
belle.  After  many  vicissitudes  Mrs.  Tyler  entered  the 
Catholic  church,  and  now  resides  in  Georgetown.  Like 


"SARAH   KNOWS   WHERE   IT  IS."  221 

Mrs.  Madison,  she  has  returned  to  the  scenes  of  her  early 
triumphs,  and  during  the  sessions  of  Congress  may  often 
be  seen  in  the  diplomatic  gallery  of  the  senate  chamber, 
a  stately  black-eyed  matron  dressed  in  deep  mourning. 

Mrs.  Polk,  intellectually,  was  one  of  the  most  marked 
women  who  ever  presided  in  the  White  House.  A  lady 
of  the  old  school,  educated  in  a  strict  Moravian  Insti- 
tute, her  attainments  were  more  than  ordinary,  her  un- 
derstanding stronger  than  that  of  average  women;  but 
she  obeyed  St.  Paul,  and  held  her  gifts  in  silence.  She 
never  astonished  or  offended  her  visitors  by  revealing  to 
them  the  depth  or  breadth  of  her  intelligence ;  nevertheless 
she  used  that  intelligence  as  a  power  —  the  power  behind 
the  throne.  Never  a  politician,  in  a  day  when  politics,  by 
precedent  and  custom,  were  forbidden  grounds  to  women, 
she  no  less  was  thoroughly  conversant  with  all  public 
affairs,  and  made  it  a  part  of  her  duty  to  inform  herself 
thoroughly  on  all  subjects  which  concerned  her  country, 
or  her  husband. 

She  was  her  husband's  private  secretary,  and,  probably, 
was  the  only  lady  of  the  White  House  who  ever  filled  that 
office.  She  took  charge  of  his  papers,  he  trusting  entirely 
to  her  memory  and  method  for  their  safe  keeping.  If  he 
wanted  a  document,  long  before  labeled  and  "pigeon- 
holed," he  said  :  "  Sarah  knows  where  it  is ;  "  and  it  was 
"  Sarah's  "  ever  ready  hand  that  laid  it  before  his  eyes. 
At  the  age  of  twenty  she  came  to  Washington  as  the  wife 
of  Mr.  Polk,  then  a  Member  of  Congress  from  Tennessee. 
Many  years  of  her  youth  and  prime  were  spent  at  the 
Capital,  and,  as  she  had  no  children,  she  had  more  than 
ordinary  opportunity  to  devote  herself  exclusively  to  the 
service  of  her  husband.  She  was  the  wife  of  the  Speaker 


222  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

of  the  House  before  she  was  the  wife  of  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  and  in  every  position  seems  to  have 
commanded  superlative  respect  and  admiration  on  her 
own  behalf,  aside  from  the  honor  always  paid  to  the  per- 
son holding  high  station.  Many  poems  in  the  public 
prints  were  addressed  to  her — one,  while  she  was  the  wife 
of  a  Member  of  Congress,  by  Judge  Story.  When  her 
husband  became  the  President,  Mrs.  Polk  was  deemed  the 
supreme  ornament  of  the  White  House,  and  the  public 
journals  of  the  land  broke  forth  into  gratulation  that  the 
domestic  life  of  the  Nation's  house  was  to  be  represented 
by  one  who  honored  American  womanhood.  Mrs.  Polk 
was  tall,  slender,  and  stately,  with  much  dignity  of  bear- 
ing, and  a  manner  said  to  resemble  that  of  Mrs.  Madison. 
The  stateliness  of  her  presence  was  conspicuous,  and  so 
impressed  an  English  lady,  that  she  declared  that  "not 
one  of  the  three  queens  whom  she  had  seen,  could  com- 
pare with  the  truly  feminine,  yet  distinguished  presence 
of  Mrs.  Polk." 

Mrs.  Polk  was  considered  a  very  handsome  woman. 
Her  hair  and  eyes  were  very  black,  and  she  had  the  com- 
plexion of  a  Spanish  donna.  Without  being  technically 
"literary,"  she  was  fond  of  study,  and  of  intellectual  pur- 
suits, and  possessed  a  decided  talent  for  conversation.  In 
her  youth,  she  became  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian 
church,  and  through  a  long  life  her  character  has  been 
eminently  a  Christian  one.  Always  devout,  her  piety  in 
later  years  is  said  to  have  merged  into  austerity ;  but  even 
in  the  prime  of  her  beauty  and  power,  she  never  gave 
her  smile  or  presence  to  the  dissipation,  the  insidiously 
corrupting  influence  of  what  is  termed  "  gay  life  in  Wash- 
ington," whose  baleful  exponent  to-day  is  the  all-night 


A  WIFE'S  DEVOTION.  223 

"  German  "  so  destructive  to  freshness  of  beauty  and  purity 
of  soul. 

Mrs.  Polk  still  lives  at  "Polk  Place,"  Nashville,  Tennes- 
see, a  stately  and  noble  home,  like  the  Hermitage  in  this 
respect,  that  the  mortal  remains  of  its  master,  amid  ver- 
dure and  flowers,  beneath  the  shadow  of  its  trees,  await 
the  final  call.  The  inscription  on  the  monument,  to  the 
memory  of  President  Polk,  is  in  Mrs.  Polk's  own  words  ; 
and  here,  in  this  home,  consecrated  by  his  death,  the  ven- 
erable widow  of  the  eleventh  President  of  the  United 
States  peacefully  awaits  the  summons  which  will  recall 
her  to  the  Soul  whose  life  and  name  it  has  been  her  chief 
earthly  glory  to  embellish  and  to  represent. 

Mrs.  Taylor,  the  wife  of  General  Taylor,  the  twelfth 
President  of  the  United  States,  was  one  of  those  unknown 
heroines  of  whom  fame  keeps  no  record.  Her  life,  in  its 
self-abnegation  and  wifely  devotion,  under  every  stress  of 
privation  and  danger  on  the  Indian's  trail,  amid  fever- 
breeding  swamps,  and  on  the  edge  of  the  battle-field,  was 
more  heroic  than  that  ever  dreamed  of  by  Martha  Wash- 
ington— or  continuously  lived  by  any  Presidential  lady  of 
the  Revolution — yet  time  will  never  give  her  a  chronicler. 

When  General  Taylor  received  the  official  announce- 
ment that  he  was  elected  President  of  the  United  States, 
among  other  things  he  said :  "  For  more  than  a  quarter 
of  a  century  my  house  has  been  the  tent,  and  my  home 
the  battle-field."  This  utterance  was  simply  true,  and 
through  all  these  years,  this  precarious  house  and  home 
were  shared  by  his  devoted  wife.  He  was  one  of  the 
hardest  worked  of  fighting  officers.  Intervals  of  official 
repose  at  West  Point  and  Washington  never  came  to  this 


224  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

young  "Indian  fighter."  His  life  was  literally  spent  in 
the  savage  wilderness,  but  whether  in  the  swamps  of  Flor- 
ida, on  the  plains  of  Mexico,  or  on  the  desolate  border  of 
the  frontier,  the  young  wife  persistently  followed,  loved 
and  served  him.  Thus  all  her  children  were  born,  and 
kept  with  her  till  old  enough  to  live  without  her  care; 
then,  for  their  own  sakes,  she  gave  them  up,  and  sent 
them  back  to  "the  settlements,"  for  the  education  indis- 
pensable to  their  future  lives — but,  whatever  the  cost,  she 
stayed  with  her  husband. 

The  devotion  to  duty,  and  the  cheerfulness  under  pri- 
vation of  this  tender  woman, — the  wife  of  their  chief, — • 
penetrated  the  whole  of  his  pioneer  army.  It  made  every 
man  more  contented  and  uncomplaining,  when  he  thought 
of  her.  Her  entire  married  life  had  been  spent  thus;  but 
when  her  husband,  as  Colonel  Taylor,  took  command 
against  the  treacherous  Seminoles,  in  the  Florida  war, 
when  the  newspapers  heralded  the  new-made  discovery, 
that  the  wife  of  Colonel  Taylor  had  established  herself 
at  Tampa  Bay,  it  was  considered  unpardonably  reckless, 
that  she  should  thus  risk  her  life,  when  the  odds  of  suc- 
cess seemed  all  against  her  husband.  Nothing  could  move 
her  from  her  post.  As  ever,  she  superintended  the  cook- 
ing of  his  food;  she  ministered  to  the  sick  and  wounded; 
she  upheld  the  morale  of  the  little  army  by  the  steadfast- 
ness of  her  own  self-possession  and  hope,  through  all  the 
long  and  terrible  struggle.  Time  passed,  and  the  brave 
Colonel  of  the  Border  became  the  conquering  hero  from 
Mexico,  bearing  triumphantly  back  to  peace  the  victories 
of  Palo  Alto,  Monterey,  and  Buena  Vista,  inscribed  upon 
his  banners.  The  obscure  "Indian  fighter"  was  at  once 
the  hero  and  idol  of  the  Nation.  The  long  day  of  battle 


BETTY   BLISS    AT   THE   WHITE   HOUSE.  225 

and  glory  was  ended  at  last,  the  wife  thought, — and  now 
she,  the  General,  their  children,  in  a  four-roomed  home, 
were  to  be  kept  together  at  last,  in  peace  unbroken. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  what  a  home  so  hardly 
earned,  so  nobly  won,  was  to  such  a  woman.  Nor  is  it 
hard  to  realize  that  when  that  home  was  almost  immedi- 
ately invaded  by  a  nomination  of  its  chief  to  the  Pres- 
idency of  the  Nation,  the  woman's  heart  at  last  rebelled. 
The  wife  thought  no  new  honor  could  add  to  the  lustre 
of  her  husband's  renown.  She  declared  that  the  life- 
long habits  of  her  husband  would  make  him  miserable^ 
under  the  restraints  of  metropolitan  life,  and  the  duties  of 
a  civil  position.  From  the  first,  she  deplored  the  nomina- 
tion of  General  Taylor  to  the  Presidency  as  a  misfortune, 
and  sorrowfully  said  :  "  It  is  a  plot  to  deprive  me  of  his 
society,  and  to  shorten  his  life  by  unnecessary  care  and 
responsibility." 

When,  at  last,  she  came  to  the  White  House,  as  its  mis- 
tress, she  eschewed  the  great  reception-rooms  and  received 
her  visitors  in  private  apartments.  She  tried,  as  far  as 
possible,  to  establish  her  daily  life  on  the  routine  of  the 
small  cottage  at  Baton  Rouge,  and  she  essayed  personally 
to  minister  to  her  husband's  comforts,  as  of  old,  till  her 
simple  habits  were  ridiculed  and  made  a  cause  of  reproach 
by  the  "  opposition." 

The  reigning  lady  of  the  White  House,  at  this  tune, 
was  General  and  Mrs.  Taylor's  youngest  daughter,  Eliza- 
beth, or,  as  she  was  familiarly  and  admiringly  called, 
"  Betty  Bliss."  She  entered  the  White  House  at  the  age 
of  twenty-two,  a  bride,  having  married  Major  Bliss,  who 
served  faithfully  under  her  father  as  Adjutant-general. 
Perhaps  no  other  President  was  ever  inaugurated  with 

15 


226  TEN    YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

such  overwhelming  enthusiasm  as  General  Taylor — and 
the  reception  given  his  youngest  child,  who  greatly  re- 
sembled him,  and  who,  at  that  time,  was  the  youngest 
lady  who  had  ever  presided  at  the  White  House,  was 
almost  as  overpowering.  The  vision  that  remains  of 
her  loveliness,  shows  us  a  bright  and  beaming  creature, 
dressed  simply  in  white,  with  flowers  in  her  hair.  She 
possessed  beauty,  good  sense  and  quiet  humor.  As  a 
hostess  she  was  at  ease,  and  received  with  affable  grace  ; 
but  an  inclination  for  retirement  marked  her  as  well  as 
•her  mother.  Formal  receptions  and  official  dinners  were 
not  to  their  taste.  Nevertheless,  these  are  a  part  of  the 
inevitable  penalty  paid  by  all  who  have  received  the 
Nation's  highest  honor.  Society,  in  its  way,  exacts  as 
much  of  the  ladies  of  the  White  House,  as  party  politics 
do  of  the  men  who  administer  state  affairs  in  it.  A  lack  of 
entertainment  caused  part  of  the  universal  discontent, 
already  voiced  against  the  hero  President,  whose  heroic 
ways  were  naturally  not  the  ways  of  policy  or  diplomacy, 
The  second  winter  of  President  Taylor's  term,  the  ladies 
of  his  family  seemed  to  have  assumed  more  prominently 
and  publicly  the  social  duties  of  their  high  position.  A 
reception  at  the  President's  house,  March  4,  1850,  was  of 
remarkable  brilliancy.  Clay,  Calhoun,  Webster,  Benton 
and  Cass,  with  many  beautiful  and  cultured  women,  then 
added  their  splendor  to  society  in  Washington.  The 
auguries  of  a  brilliant  year  were  not  fulfilled.  Amid  the 
anguish  of  his  family,  President  Taylor  died  at  the  White 
House,  July  9,  1850.  When  it  was  known  that  he  must 
die,  Mrs.  Taylor  became  insensible,  and  the  agonized  cries 
of  his  family  reached  the  surrounding  streets. 


THE   DAY    OF    SMALL   THINGS.  227 

Dreadful  to  the  eyes  of  the  bereaved  wife  were  the 
pomp  and  show  with  which  her  hero  was  buried. 

After  he  became  President,  General  Taylor  said,  that 
"  his  wife  had  prayed  every  night  for  months  that  Henry 
Clay  might  be  elected  President  in  his  place."  She  sur- 
vived her  husband  two  years,  and  to  her  last  hour  never 
mentioned  the  White  House  in  Washington,  except  in  its 
relation  to  the  death  of  her  husband. 

She  was  succeeded  by  a  woman  of  superior  intellect, 
who  in  a  different  sphere  had  proved  herself  an  equally 
devoted  wife.  Mrs.  Abigail  Filmore,  the  daughter  of  a 
Baptist  clergyman,  grew  up  in  Western  New  York,  when 
it  was  a  frontier  and  a  wilderness.  Yearning  for  intellect- 
ual culture,  with  all  the  drawbacks  of  poverty  and  scanty 
opportunity,  she  obtained  sufficient  knowledge  to  become 
a  school-teacher.  It  was  while  following  this  avocation 
that  she  first  met  her  future  husband,  the  thirteenth 
President  of  the  United  States,  then  a  clothier's  appren- 
tice, a  youth  of  less  than  twenty  years,  himself,  during 
the  winter  months,  a  teacher  of  the  village  school.  They 
were  married  in  1826,  and  began  life  in  a  small  house 
built  by  her  husband's  hands.  In  this  little  house  the  wife 
added  to  her  duties  of  maid-of-all-work,  house-keeper, 
hostess  and  wife,'  the  avocation  of  teacher.  She  bore  full 
half  of  the  burden  of  life,  and  the  husband,  with  the 
weight  of  care  lifted  from  him  by  willing  and  loving 
hands,  rose  rapidly  in  the  profession  of  law,  and  in  less 
than  two  years  was  chosen  a  member  of  the  State  Legis- 
lature. Thus,  side  by  side,  they  worked  and  struggled 
from  poverty  to  eminence. 

Strong  in  intellect  and  will,  her  delights  were  all  femi- 
nine. Her  tasks  accomplished,  she  lived  in  books  and 


228  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

music,  flowers  and  children.  At  her  death,  her  husband 
said  :  "  For  twenty-seven  years,  my  entire  married  life,  I 
was  always  greeted  with  a  happy  smile."  She  entered  the 
White  House  a  matron  of  commanding  person  and  beau- 
tiful countenance.  She  was  five  feet  six  inches  in  height, 
with  a  complexion  extremely  fair  and  pure,  blue,  smiling 
eyes,  and  a  wealth  of  light-brown  curling  hair.  A  per- 
sonal friend  of  Mrs.  Filmore,  writing  from  Buffalo,  says  : 

"  When  Mr.  Filmore  entered  the  White  House,  he  found  it 
entirely  destitute  of  books.  Mrs.  Filmore  was  in  the  habit  of 
spending  her  leisure  moments  in  reading,  I  might  almost  say,  in 
studying.  She  was  accustomed  to  be  surrounded  with  books  of 
reference,  maps,  and  all  the  other  requirements  of  a  well  fur- 
nished library,  and  she  found  it  difficult  to  content  herself  in  a 
house  devoid  of  such  attractions.  To  meet  this  want,  Mr.  Fil- 
more asked  of  Congress,  and  received  an  appropriation,  and  se-- 
lected  a  library,  devoting  to  that  purpose  a  large  and  pleasant 
room  in  the  second  story  of  the  White  House.  Here  Mrs.  Fil- 
more surrounded  herself  with  her  little  home  comforts ;  here 
her  daughter  had  her  own  piano,  harp,  and  guitar,  and  here  Mrs. 
Filmore  received  the  informal  visits  of  the  friends  s'he  loved, 
and,  for  her,  the  real  pleasure  and  enjoyments  of  the  White 
House  were  in  this  room." 

Mrs.  Filmore  was  proud  of  her  husband's  success  in 
life,  and  desirous  that  no  reasonable  expectation  of  the 
public  should  be  disappointed.  She  never  absented  her- 
self from  the  public  receptions,  dinners,  or  levees,  when  it 
was  possible  to  be  present;  but  her  delicate  health  fre- 
quently rendered  them  very  painful.  She  sometimes  kept 
her  bed  all  day,  to  favor  that  weak  ankle,  that  she  might 
be  able  to  endure  the  fatigue  of  the  two  hours  she  would 
be  obliged  to  stand  for  the  Friday  evening  levees. 


A   DAUGHTER   OF   THE   WHITE   HOUSE.  229 

Mrs.  Filmore  was  destined  never  to  see  again  her  old 
home  in  Buffalo,  with  mortal  eyes.  She  contracted  a  cold 
on  the  day  of  Mr.  Pierce's  inauguration,  which  resulted 
in  pneumonia,  of  which  she  died,  at  Willard's  Hotel,  Wash- 
ington, 1853.  What  she  is  in  the  memory  of  her  husband, 
may  be  judged  by  the  fact — that  he  has  carefully  pre- 
served every  line  that  she  ever  wrote  him,  and  has  been 
heard  to  say  that  he  could  never  destroy  even  the  little 
notes  that  she  sent  him  on  business,  to  his  office. 

The  child  of  this  truly  wedded  pair,  Mary  Abigail  Fil- 
more, was  the  rarest  and  most  exquisite  President's  daugh- 
ter that  ever  shed  sunshine  in  the  White  House.  She 
survived  her  mother  but  a  year,  dying  of  cholera,  at  the 
age  of  twenty-two,  yet  her  memory  is  a  benison  to  all 
young  American  women,  especially  to  those  surrounded 
by  the  allurements  of  society  and  high  station.  She  was 
not  only  the  mistress  of  many  accomplishments,  but  pos- 
sessed a  thoroughly  practical  education.  She  was  taught 
at  home,  at  Mrs.  Sedgwick's  school,  in  Lenox,  Massachu- 
setts, and  was  graduated  from  the  State  Normal  School  of 
New  York,  as  a  teacher,  and  taught  in  the  higher  depart- 
ments of  one  of  the  public  schools  in  Buffalo.  She  was 
a  French,  German,  and  Spanish  scholar;  was  a  proficient 
in  music;  and  an  amateur  sculptor.  She  was  the  rarest 
type  of  woman,  in  whom  were  blended,  in  perfect  propor- 
tion, masculine  judgment  and  feminine  tenderness.  In 
her  were  combined  intellectual  force,  vivacity  of  temper- 
ament, genuine  sensibility,  and  deep  tenderness  of  heart. 
She  saw  clearly  through  the  forms  and  shows  of  life,  her 
views  of  its  duties  were  grave  and  serious;  yet,  in  her 
intercourse  with  others,  she  overflowed  with  bright  wit, 
humor  and  kindliness.  Her  character  was  revealed  in  her 


230  TEN   TEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

face,  for  her  soul  shone  through  it.  Words  cannot  tell 
what  such  a  nature  and  such  an  intelligence  would  be, 
presiding  over  the  social  life  of  the  Nation's  House.  She 
used  her  opportunities,  as  the  President's  daughter,  to 
minister  to  others.  She  clung  to  all  her  old  friends,  with- 
out any  regard  to  their  position  in  life ;  her  time  and  tal- 
ents were  devoted  to  their  happiness.  She  was  constantly 
thinking  of  some  little  surprise,  some  gift,  some  journey, 
some  pleasure,  by  which  she  could  contribute  to  the  hap- 
piness of  others.  After  the  death  of  her  mother,  she 
went  to  the  desolate  home  of  her  father  and  brother,  and, 
emulating  the  example  of  that  mother,  relieved  her  father 
of  all  household  care;  her  domestic  and  social  qualities 
equalled  her  intellectual  power.  She  gathered  all  her 
early  friends  about  her ;  she  consecrated  herself  to  the 
happiness  of  her  father  and  brother ;  she  filled  her  home 
with  sunshine.  With  scarcely  an  hour's  warning,  the 
final  summons  came.  "Blessing  she  was,  God  made  her 
so,"  and  in  her  passed  away  one  of  the  rarest  of  young 
American  women. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

•• 

THE  WPITE  HOUSE  DURING  THE  WAR. 

Under  »  Cloud- — "A  Woman  Among  a  Thousand" — Revival  of  By-gone 
Days-  -Another  Lady  of  the  White  House — A  "  Golden  Blonde  '' 
— Instinct  Alike  with  Power  and  Grace — A  Fun-Loving  Romp — 
Harriet  with  her  Wheelbarrow  of  Wood — A  Deed  of  Kindness — 
The  Wheel  Turns  Round — An  Impression  Made  on  Queen-  Victoria 
— In  Paris  and  on  the  Continent — An  American  Lady  at  Oxford — 
Gay  Doings  at  the  Capital — Rival  Claims  for  a  Lady's  Hand — Reign- 
ing at  the  White  House — Doing  Double  Duty — Visit  of  the  Prince  of 
Wales — Marriage  of  Harriet  Lane — As  Wife  and  Mother — Mrs.  Abraham 
Lincoln — Standing  Alone — A  Time  of  Trouble  and  Perplexity — Concilia- 
tory Counsels  Needful — Rumors  of  War — the  Life  of  the  Nation  Threat- 
ened— Whispers  of  Treason — Awaiting  the  Event — Peculiar  Position  of 
Mary  Lincoln— A  Life-long  Ambition  Fulfilled— The  Nation  Called  to 
Arms — Contagious  Enthusiasm — What  the  President's  Wife  Did — Noth- 
ing to  do  but  "  Shop  " — Sensational  Stories  Afloat — Stirring  Times  at 
the  Capital — What  Came  from  the  River — The  Dying  and  the  Dead — 
Churches  and  Houses  Turned  into  Hospitals — Arrival  of  Troops — "  Mrs- 
Lincoln  Shopped  " — The  Lonely  Man  at  the  White  House — Letters  of 
Rebuke — An  Example  of  Selfishness — Petty  Economies — The  Back  Door 
of  the  White  House — An  Injured  Individual — Death  of  Willie  Lincoln — 
Injustice  which  Mrs.  Lincoln  Suffered — The  Rabble  in  the  White  House 
— Valuables  Carried  Away — Big  Boxes  and  Much  Goods — Going  West — 
Mrs.  Lincoln  Disconsolate — False  and  Cruel  Accusations — Considerable 
Personal  Property — Missing  Treasures — Mrs.  Lincoln  as  a  Woman-- 
Tears and  Mimicry— The  Faults  of  a  President's  Wife. 

MRS.  FRANKLIN  PIERCE  entered  the  White  House 
under  the  shadow  of   ill-health  and  sore  bereave- 
ment, having  seen  her  last  surviving  child  killed  before 
her   eyes  on   a  railroad  train,  after  the  election  of  her 
husband  to  the  Presidency  of  the  United  States. 


232  TEN  YEARS  IN  WASHINGTON. 

Mrs.  Pierce  was  remarkable  for  fragility  of  constitution, 
exquisite  sensitiveness  of  organism,  and  deep  spirituality 
of  nature.  She  instinctively  shrank  from  observation, 
and  nothing  could  be  more  painful  to  her  in  average  life 
than  the  public  gaze.  She  found  her  joy  in  the  quiet 
sphere  of  domestic  life,  and  herein,  through  her  wise 
counsels,  pure  tastes,  and  devoted  life,  she  exerted  a 
powerful  influence.  One  who  knew  her  writes : 

"  Mrs.  Pierce's  life,  as  far  as  she  could  make  it  so,  was  one  of 
retirement.  She  rarely  participated  in  gay  amusements,  and 
never  enjoyed  what  is  called  fashionable  society.  Her  natural 
endowments  were  of  a  high  order.  She  inherited  a  judgment 
singularly  clear,  and  a  taste  almost  unerring.  The  cast  of  her 
beauty  was  so  dream-like  ;  her  temper  was  so  little  mingled 
with  the  common  characteristics  of  woman ;  it  had  so  little  of 
caprice,  so  little  of  vanity,  so  utter  an  absence  of  all  jealousy 
and  all  anger ;  it  was  so  made  up  of  tenderness  and  devotion, 
and  yet  so  imaginative  and  fairy-like  in  its  fondness,  that  it  was 
difficult  to  bear  only  the  sentiments  of  earth  for  one  who  had  so 
little  of  life's  clay." 

It  was  but  natural  that  such  a  being  should  be  the  life- 
long object  of  a  husband's  adoring  devotion.  Nor  is  it 
strange  that  the  husband  of  such  a  wife,  reflecting  in  his 
outer  life  the  urbanity,  gentleness,  and  courtesy  which 
marked  his  home  intercourse,  in  addition  to  his  own  per- 
sonal gifts,  should  have  been,  what  Franklin  Pierce  was 
declared  to  be,  the  most  popular  man,  personally,  who 
ever  was  President  of  the  United  States.  Notwithstand- 
ing her  ill  health,  her  shrinking  temperament,  and  per- 
sonal bereavement,  Mrs.  Pierce  forced  herself  to  meet  the 
public  demands  of  her  exalted  station,  and  punctually 
presided  at  receptions  and  state  dinners,  at  any  cost  to 


THE  GLORY  OF  A  GOLDEN  BLONDE.       233 

herself.  No  woman,  by  inherent  nature,  could  have  been 
less  adapted  to  the  full  blaze  of  official  life  than  she,  yet  she 
met  its  demands  with  honor,  and  departed  from  the  White 
House  revered  by  all  who  had  ever  caught  a  glimpse  of 
her  exquisite  nature.  She  died  December,  1863,  in  Ando- 
ver,  Massachusetts,  and  now  rests,  with  her  husband  and 
children,  in  the  cemetery  at  Concord,  New  Hampshire. 

During  the  administration  of  Mr.  Buchanan,  the  White 
House  seemed  to  revive  the  social  magnificence  of  old 
days.  Harriet  Lane  brought  again  into  its  drawing- 
rooms  the  splendor  of  courts,  and  more  than  repeated 
the  elegance  and  brilliancy  of  fashion,  which  marked  the 
administration  of  Mr.  John  Quincy  Adams. 

Harriet  Lane,  the  adopted  daughter  of  James  Bu- 
chanan, and  "  lady  of  the  White  House  "  during  his  ad- 
ministration, was  one  of  those  golden  blondes  which 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  so  delights  to  portray.  "  Her 
head  and  features  were  cast  in  noble  mould,  and  her  form 
which,  at  rest,  had  something  of  the  massive  majesty  of 
a  marble  pillar,  in  motion  was '  instinct  alike  with  power 
and  grace."  Grace,  light  and  majesty  seemed  to  make 
her  atmosphere.  Every  motion  was  instinct  with  life, 
health  and  intelligence.  Her  superb  physique  gave  the 
impression  of  intense,  harmonious  vitality.  Her  eyes,  of 
deep  violet,  shed  a  constant,  steady  light,  yet  they  could 
flash  with  rebuke,  kindle  with  humor,  or  soften  in  tender- 
ness. Her  mouth  was  her  most  peculiarly  beautiful  fea- 
ture, capable  of  expressing  infinite  humor  or  absolute 
sweetness,  while  her  classic  head  was  crowned  with  masses 
of  golden  hair,  always  worn  with  perfect  simplicity. 

As  a  child  she  was  a  fun-loving,  warm-hearted  romp. 


234  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

When  eleven  years  of  age  she  was  tall  as  a  woman,  never- 
theless Mr.  Buchanan,  one  day  looking  from  his  window, 
saw  Harriet  with  flushed  cheek  and  hat  awry,  trundling 
through  the  leading  street  of  Lancaster  a  wheelbarrow, 
full  of  wood.  He  rushed  out  to  learn  the  cause  of  such 
an  unseemly  sight,  when  she  answered  in  confusion, 
"  that  she  was  on  her  way  to  old  black  Aunt  Tabitha  with 
a  load  of  wood,  because  it  was  so  cold."  A  few  years  later 
this  young  domestic  outlaw,  having  been  graduated  with 
high  honor  from  the  Georgetown  convent,  was  shining  at 
the  Court  of  St.  James,  at  which  her  uncle  was  American 
Minister.  Queen  Victoria,  upon  whom  her  surpassing  - 
brightness  and  loveliness  seemed  to  make  a  deep  impres- 
sion, decided  that  she  should  rank  not  as  niece  or 
daughter,  but  as  the  wife  of  the  United  States  Minister. 
Thus  the  youthful  American  girl  became  one  of  the 
"  leading  ladies  "  of  the  diplomatic  corps  of  St.  James. 

On  the  continent  and  in  Paris  she  was  everywhere 
greeted  as  a  girl-queen,  and  in  England  her  popularity 
was  immense.  On  the  day  when  Mr.  Buchanan  and  Mr. 
Tennyson  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Civil  Laws  at 
the  University  of  Oxford,  her  appearance  was  greeted  by 
loud  cheers  from  the  students,  who  arose  en  masse  to  re- 
ceive her.  From  this  dazzling  career  abroad,  she  came 
back  to  her  native  land,  to  preside  over  the  President's 
House.  She  became  the  supreme  lady  of  the  gayest  ad- 
ministration which  has  marked  the  government  of  the 
United  States.  Societies,  ships  of  war,  neck-ties  were 
named  after  her.  Men,  gifted  and  great,  from  foreign  lands 
and  in  her  own>  sought  her  hand  in  marriage.  Such  cu- 
mulated pleasures  and  honors  probably  were  never  heaped 
upon  any  other  one  young  woman  of  the  United  States. 


THE    PEINCE    OF   WALES   AT   THE    WHITE    HOUSE.     235 

At  White  House  receptions,  and  on  all  state  occasions, 
the  sight  of  this  golden  beauty,  standing  beside  the  grand 
and  gray  old  man,  made  a  unique  and  delightful  contrast, 
which  thousands  flocked  to  see.  Her  duties  were  more 
onerous  than  had  fallen  to  the  share  of  any  lady  of  the 
White  House  for  many  years ;  the  long  diplomatic  ser- 
vice of  Mr.  Buchanan  abroad  involving  him  in  many  obli- 
gations to  entertain  distinguished  strangers  privately,  aside 
from  his  hospitalities  as  President  of  the  United  States. 
During  his  administration  the  Prince  of  Wales  was  enter- 
tained at  the  White  House,  who  presented  his  portrait  to 
Mr.  Buchanan  and  a  set  of  valuable  engravings  to  Miss 
Lane,  as  "  a  slight  mark  of  his  grateful  recollection  of  the 
hospitable  reception  and  agreeable  visit  at  the  White 
House." 

During  the  last  troubled  months  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  ad- 
ministration, he  always  spoke  with  warmth  and  gratitude 
of  Miss  Lane's  patriotism  and  good  sense.  Neither  he  nor 
her  country  ever  suffered  from  any  conversational  lapse 
of  hers,  which,  in  a  day  so  rife  with  passion  and  injustice, 
is  saying  much.  In  1863,  Miss  Lane  was  confirmed  in  the 
Episcopal  church  at  Oxford,  Philadelphia,  of  which  her 
uncle,  Rev.  Edward  L.  Buchanan,  was  the  rector. 

In  1866,  Miss  Lane  was  married,  at  Wheatland,  to  Mr. 
Henry  Elliott  Johnston  of  Baltimore,  a  gentleman  who 
had  held  her  affections  for  many  years.  The  congenial 
pair  now  abide  in  their  luxurious  home  in  Baltimore,  and 
in  private  life,  as  wife  and  mother,  she  is  as  beautiful  and 
more  beloved  than  when,  as  Miss  Lane,  she  was  the  proud 
lady  of  the  President's  House. 

It  was  the  misfortune  of  Mrs.  Lincoln  to  be  the  only 


236  TEX   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

woman  personally  assailed  who  ever  presided  in  the  White 
House.  She  entered  it  when  sectional  bitterness  was  at 
its  height,  and  when  the  need  of  her  country  for  the 
holiest  and  highest  ministry  of  women  was  deeper  than  it 
had  been  in  any  era  of  its  existence,  even  that  of  the 
Kevolution.  In  that  troubled  hour,  the  White  House 
needed  a  woman  to  preside  over  it  of  lofty  soul,  of  conse- 
crated purpose,  of  the  broadest  and  profoundest  sympa- 
thies, and  of  self -forgetting  piety. 

The  life  of  the  Nation  was  threatened.  The  horror  of 
war  was  imminent.  The  capital  was  menaced,  as  it  had 
never  been  before,  by  the  treason  of  its  own  children, 
Wives,  mothers  and  daughters,  in  ten  thousand  homes, 
were  looking  into  the  faces  of  husbands,  sons  and  fathers, 
with  trembling  and  with  tears,  and  yet  with  sacrificial 
patriotism.  They  knew,  they  felt  that  the  best-beloved 
were  to  be  slain  on  their  country's  battle-fields.  With 
what  supreme  devotion  and  consecration  would  Abigail 
Adams,  or  a  thousand  women  of  her  heroic  type,  have 
approached  the  Nation's  House  as  the  wife  of  its  President 
in  such  an  hour.  It  was  the  hour  for  self-forgetting — 
the  hour  of  sacrifice.  Personal  vanity  and  elation,  excu- 
sable in  a  more  peaceful  time,  seemed  unpardonable  in  this. 
Yet,  in  reviewing  the  character  of  the  Presidents'  wives, 
we  shall  see  that  there  was  never  one  who  entered  the 
White  House  with  such  a  feeling  of  self-satisfaction,  which 
amounted  to  personal  exultation,  as  did  Mary  Lincoln. 
To  her  it  was  the  fulfillment  of  a  life-long  ambition,  and 
with  the  first  low  muttering  of  war  distinctly  heard,  on 
every  side,  she  made  her  journey  to  Washington  a  tri- 
umphal passage. 

A  single  month,  and  the  President's  call  for  troops  to 


THE   WHITE    HOUSE    DUEING    THE    WAR.  237 

protect  the  capital  had  penetrated  the  remotest  hamlet  of 
the  land.  All  the  manly  life-blood  of  the  Nation  surged 
toward  its  defence.  All  the  heart  of  its  womanhood  went 
up  to  God,  crying  for  its  safety.  In  the  distant  farm-house 
women  waited,  breathless,  the  latest  story  of  battle.  In 
the  crowded  cities  they  gathered  by  thousands,  crying, 
only,  "  Let  me  work  for  my  brother :  he  dies  for  me  !  " 

With  the  record  of  the  march  and  the  fight,  and  of  the 
unseemly  defeat,  the  newspapers  teemed  with  gossip  con- 
cerning the  new  lady  of  the  White  House.  While  her 
sister-women  scraped  lint,  sewed  bandages,  and  put  on 
nurses'  caps,  and  gave  their  all  to  country  and  to  death, 
the  wife  of  its  President  spent  her  time  in  rolling  to  and 
fro  between  Washington  and  New  York,  intent  on  extrav- 
agant purchases  for  herself  and  the  White  House.  Mrs. 
Lincoln  seemed  to  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  "  shop,"  and 
the  reports  of  her  lavish  bargains,  in  the  newspapers, 
were  vulgar  and  sensational  in  the  extreme.  The  wives 
and  daughters  of  other  Presidents  had  managed  to  dress 
as  elegant  women,  without  the  process  of  so  doing  becom- 
ing prominent  or  public.  But  not  a  new  dress  or  jewel 
was  bought  by  Mrs.  Lincoln  that  did  not  find  its  way  into 
the  newspapers. 

Months  passed,  and  the  capital  had  become  one  vast 
hospital.  The  reluctant  river  every  hour  laid  at  the  feet 
of  the  city  its  priceless  freight  of  lacerated  men.  The 
wharves  were  lined  with  the  dying  and  dead.  One  cease- 
less procession  of  ambulances  moved  to  and  fro.  Our 
streets  resounded  with  the  shrieks  of  the  sufferers  which 
they  bore.  Churches,  halls  and  houses  were  turned  into 
hospitals.  Every  railroad-train  that  entered  the  city  bore 
fresh  troops  to  the  Nation's  rescue,  and  fresh  mourners 


238  TEN    YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

seeking  their  dead,  who  had  died  in  its  defence.  Through 
all,  Mrs.  Lincoln  "  shopped." 

At  the  White  House,  a  lonely  man,  sorrowful  at  heart, 
and  weighed  down  by  mighty  burdens,  bearing  the  Nation's 
fate  upon  his  shoulders,  lived  and  toiled  and  suffered 
alone.  His  wife,  during  all  the  summer,  was  at  the 
hotels  of  fashionable  watering-places.  Conduct  compara- 
tively blameless  in  happier  times,  became  culpable  under 
such  exigencies  and  in  such  shadow.  Jarred,  from  the 
beginning,  by  Mrs.  Lincoln's  life,  the  Nation,  under  its 
heavy  stress  of  sorrow,  seemed  goaded  at  last  to  exaspera- 
tion. Letters  of  rebuke,  of  expostulation,  of  anathema 
even,  addressed  to  her,  personally,  came  in  to  her  from 
every  direction.  Not  a  day  that  did  not  bring  her  many 
such  communications,  denouncing  her  mode  of  life,  her 
conduct,  and  calling  upon  her  to  fulfil  the  obligations,  and 
meet  the  opportunities  of  her  high  station. 

To  no  other  woman  of  America  had  ever  been  vouch^ 
safed  so  full  an  opportunity  for  personal  benevolence  and 
philanthropy  to  her  own  countrymen.  To  no  other 
American  woman  had  ever  come  an  equal  chance  to  set  a 
lofty  example  of  self-abnegation  to  all  her  countrywomen. 
But  just  as  if  there  were  no  national  peril,  no  monstrous 
national  debt,  no  rivers  of  blood  flowing,  she  seemed 
chiefly  intent  upon  pleasure,  personal  flattery  and  adula- 
tion ;  upon  extravagant  dress  and  ceaseless  self-gratifi- 
cation. 

Vain,  seeking  admiration,  the  men  who  fed  her  weak- 
ness for  their  own  political  ends  were  sure  of  her  favor. 
Thus,  while  daily  -disgracing  the  State  by  her  own  ex- 
ample, she  still  sought  to  meddle  in  its  affairs.  Woe  to 
Mr.  Lincoln  if  he  did  not  appoint  her  favorites.  Prodigal 


THE  CABINET  BOOM. 
INSIDE  THE  WHITE  HOUSE.— WASHINGTON, 


SELLING   MILK   AT   THE    BACK   DOOR.  239 

in  personal  expenditure,  she  brought  shame  upon  the 
President's  House,  by  petty  economies,  which  had  never 
disgraced  it  before.  Had  the  milk  of  its  dairy  been  sent 
to  the  hospitals,  she  would  have  received  golden  praise. 
But  the  whole  city  felt  scandalized  to  have  it  haggled 
over  and  peddled  from  the  back  door  of  the  White  House. 
State  dinners  could  have  been  dispensed  with,  without  a 
word  of  blame,  had  their  cost  been  consecrated  to  the 
soldiers'  service  ;  but  when  it  was  made  apparent  that  they 
were  omitted  from  personal  penuriousness  and  a  desire  to 
•devote  their  cost  to  personal  gratification,  the  public  cen- 
sure knew  no  bounds. 

From  the  moment  Mrs.  Lincoln  began  to  receive  re- 
criminating letters,  she  considered  herself  an  injured  indi- 
vidual, the  honored  object  of  envy,  jealousy  and  spite,  and 
a  martyr  to  her  high  position.  No  doubt  some  of  them 
were  unjust,  and  many  more  unkind  ;  but  it  never  dawned 
upon  her  consciousness  that  any  part  of  the  provocation 
was  on  her  side,  and  after  a  few  tastes  of  their  bitter 
draughts  she  ceased  to  open  them.  Even  death  did  not 
spare  her.  Willie  Lincoln,  the  loveliest  child  of  the  White 
House,  was  smitten  and  died,  to  the  unutterable  grief  of 
his  father  and  the  wild  anguish  of  his  mother.  She 
mourned  according  to  her  nature.  Her  loss  did  not  draw 
her  nearer  in  sympathy  to  the  nation  of  mothers  that 
moment  weeping  because  their  sons  were  not.  It  did  not 
lead  her  in  time  to  minister  to  such,  whom  death  had 
robbed  and  life  had  left  without  alleviation.  She  shut 
herself  in  with  her  grief,  and  demanded  of  God  why 
he  had  afflicted  her!  Nobody  suffered  as  she  suffered. 
The  Nation's  House  wore  a  pall,  at  last,  not  for  its  tens 
of  thousands  of  brave  sons  slain,  but  for  the  President's 


240  TEN   YEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

child.  The  Guests'  Room,  in  which  he  died,  Mrs.  Lincoln 
never  entered  again ;  nor  the  Green  Room,  wherein, 
decked  with  flowers,  his  fair  young  body  awaited  burial. 

In  the  same  way,  Mrs.  Lincoln  bewept  her  husband. 
And  there  is  no  doubt  but  that,  in  that  black  hour,  she 
suffered  great  injustice.  She  loved  her  husband  with  the 
intensity  of  a  nature,  deep  and  strong,  within  a  narrow 
channel.  The  shock  of  his  untimely  and  awful  taking- 
off,  might  have  excused  a  woman  of  loftier  nature  than 
hers  for  any  accompanying  paralysis. 

It  was  not  strange  that  Mrs.  Lincoln  was  not  able  to 
leave  the  White  House  for  five  weeks  after  her  husband's 
death.  It  would  have  been  stranger,  had  she  been  able 
to  have  left  it  sooner.  It  was  her  misfortune,  that  she 
had  so  armed  public  sympathy  against  her,  by  years  of 
indifference  to  the  sorrows  of  others,  that  when  her 
own  hour  of  supreme  anguish  came,  there  were  few  to 
comfort  her,  and  many  to  assail.  She  had  made  many 
unpopular  innovations  upon  the  old,  serene  and  stately 
regime  of  the  President's  house.  Never  a  reign  of  con- 
cord, in  her  best  day,  in  her  hour  of  affliction  it  degen- 
erated into  absolute  anarchy.  I  believe  the  long-time 
steward  had  been  dethroned,  that  Mrs.  Lincoln  might 
manage  according  to  her  own  will.  At-any-rate,  while 
she  was  shut  in  with  her  woe,  the  White  House  was  left 
without  a  responsible  protector.  The  rabble  ranged 
through  it  at  will.  Silver  and  dining-ware  were  carried 
off,  and  have  never  been  recovered.  It  was  plundered, 
not  only  of  ornaments,  but  of  heavy  articles  of  furni- 
ture. Costly  sofas  and  chairs  were  cut  and  injured.  Ex- 
quisite lace  curtains  were  torn  into  rags,  and  carried  off 
in  pieces. 


ABOUT  THE  BIG  BOXES.  241 

While  all  this  was  going  on  below,  Mrs.  Lincoln,  shut 
up  in  her  apartments,  refused  to  see  any  one  but  servants, 
while  day  after  day,  immense  boxes,  containing  her  per- 
sonal effects,  were  leaving  the  White  House  for  her  newly- 
chosen  abode  in  the  West.  The  size  and  number  of  these 
boxes,  with  the  fact  of  the  pillaged  aspect  of  the  White 
House,  led  to  the  accusation,  which  so  roused  public  feel- 
ing against  her,  that  she  was  robbing  the  Nation's  House, 
and  carrying  the  national  property  with  her  into  retire- 
ment. This  accusation,  which  clings  to  her  to  this  day, 
was  probably  unjust.  Her  personal  effects,  in  all  likeli- 
hood, amounted  to  as  much  as  that  of  nearly  all  other 
Presidents'  wives  together,  and  the  vandals  who  roamed 
at  large  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  White 
House,  were  quite  sufficient  to  account  for  all  its  missing 
treasures. 

The  public  also  did  Mrs.  Lincoln  injustice,  in  consider- 
ing her  an  ignorant,  illiterate  woman.  She  was  well- 
born, gently  reared,  and  her  education  above  the  average 
standard  given  to  girls  in  her  youth.  She  is  a  fair  mis- 
tress of  the  French  language,  and  in  English  can  write  a 
more  graceful  letter  than  one  educated  woman  in  fifty. 
She  has  quick  perceptions,  and  an  almost  unrivalled 
power  of  mimicry.  The  only  amusement  of  her  desolate 
days,  while  shut  in  from  the  world  in  Chicago,  when  she 
refused  to  see  her  dearest  friends  and  took  comfort  in  the 
thought  that  she  had  been  chosen  as  the  object  of  pre- 
eminent affliction,  was  to  repeat  in  tone,  gesture  and 
expression,  the  words,  actions  and  looks  of  men  and 
women  who,  in  the  splendor  of  her  life  in  Washington, 
had  happened  to  offend  her.  Her  lack  was  not  a  lack  of 
keen  faculties,  or  of  fair  culture,  but  a  constitutional 

16 


242  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

inability  to  rise  to  the  action  of  high  motive  in  a  time 
when  every  true  soul  in  the  nation  seemed  to  be  im- 
pelled to  unselfish  deeds  for  its  rescue.  She  was  incapable 
of  lofty,  impersonal  impulse.  She  was  self -centred,  and 
never  in  any  experience  rose  above  herself.  According 
to  circumstance,  her  own  ambitions,  her  own  pleasures, 
her  own  sufferings,  made  the  sensation  which  absorbed 
and  consumed  every  other.  As  •  a  President's  wife  she 
could  not  rise  above  the  level  of  her  nature,  and  it  was 
her  misfortune  that  she  never  even  approached  the  bound 
of  her  opportunity. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

THE  WHITE  HOUSE  NOW. 

After  the  War — The  Home  of  President  Johnson — Shut  Up  in  the  Moun- 
tains— Two  Years  of  Exile — A  Contrast — Suffering  for  their  Country — 
Secretly  Burying  the  Dead — A  Wife  of  Seventeen  Years — Midnight 
Studies — Broken  Down — A  Party  of  Grandchildren — "  My  Dears,  I  am 
an  Invalid  "— "  God's  Best  Gift  to  Man  "—The  Woman  Who  Taught  the 
President — A  "  Lady  of  Benign  Countenance  " — Doing  the  Honors  at 
the  White  House—"  We  are  Plain  People  "—The  East  Room  Filled 
with  Vermin — Traces  of  the  Soldiers — A  State  of  Dirt  and  Ruin — Mrs. 
Patterson's  Calico  Dress — In  the  Dairy — A  Nineteenth  Century  Wonder 
— How  the  Old  Carpets  were  Patched — The  Greenbacks  are  Forthcoming 
—How  830,000  were  Spent— Buying  the  Furniture— Working  in  Hot 
Weather — "  Wrestling  with  Rags  and  Ruins  " — "  Renovated  from  Top  to 
Bottom  "—What  the  Ladies  Wore,  and  What  They  Didn't— The  Mem- 
ory of  Elegant  Attire — Impressing  the  Public  Mind — How  Unperverted 
Minds  are  Affected — "  Bare-necked  Dowagers — "  A  Large  Crowd  of 
Bare  Busts " — Elderly  Ladies  with  Raven  Locks — The  Opinion  of  a 
Woman  of  Fashion — Very  Good  Dinners — Obsequious  to  the  Will  of 
"  the  People  " — Doors  Open  to  the  Mob — Sketching  a  Banquet — Senti- 
mental Reflections  on  the  Dining  Room — The  Portraits  of  the  Presidents 
— The  Impeachment  Trial — Peace  in  the  Family — The  Grant  Dynasty — 
Looking  Home-like—Mrs.  Grant  at  Home— What  Might  Be  Done,  if—- 
What Won't  Work  a  Reformation— A  Pity  for  Miss  Nellie  Grant— How 
She  Suddenly  "  Came  Out  "— "  A  Full  Fledged  Woman  of  Fashion"- 
A  "  Shoal  of  Pretty  Girls" — How  a  Certain  Young  Lady  was  Spoilt — 
Brushing  Away  "  the  Dew  of  Innocence  " — Need  of  a  Centripetal  Soul 
—Society  in  the  Season— Rare  Women  with  no  Tastes— The  Wives  of 
the  Presidents  Summed  Up. 

MRS.  LINCOLN  was  succeeded  in  the  White  House 
by  three  women,  who  entered  its  portals  through 
the  fiery  baptism  of  suffering  for  their  country's  sake. 


244  TEN   TEAKS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

While  President  Johnson  was  performing  his  duties  as 
Senator  in  Washington,  his  family  were  shut  up  in  the 
mountains  of  East  Tennessee,  where  the  ravages  of  war 
were  most  dreadful.  For  more  than  two  years  he  was 
unable  to  set  eyes  on  either  wife  or  child.  While  many 
of  the  mushroom  aristocracy,  who  afterwards  looked  upon 
them  so  superciliously,  were  coining  their  ill-gotten  dol- 
lars out  of  the  blood  of  their  country,  these  brave,  loyal 
women  were  being  "  hunted  from  point  to  point,  driven  to 
seek  refuge  in  the  wilderness,  forced  to  subsist  on  coarse 
and  insufficient  food,  and  more  than  once  called  to  bury 
with  secret  and  stolen  sepulture  those  whom  they  loved, 
murdered  because  they  would  not  join  in  deeds  of  odioug 
treason  to  union  and  liberty." 

President  Johnson's  youngest  daughter  entered  the 
White  House  a  widow,  recently  bereaved  of  her  husband, 
wlio  fell  a  soldier  in  the  Union  cause.  His  wife,  who  at 
seventeen  was  his  teacher,  when  "  in  the  silent  watches 
of  the  night  the  youthful  couple  studied  together,"  when 
their  weary  tasks  were  done,  came  to  the  White  House 
broken  in  health  and  spirits,  through  the  suffering  and 
bereavements  through  which  she  had  passed.  She  was 
never  seen  but  on  one  public  occasion  at  the  White 
House,  that  of  a  children's  party,  given  to  her  grand- 
children. At  that  time  she  was  seated  in  one  of  the 
republican  court-chairs  of  satin  and  ebony.  She  did  not 
rise  when  the  children  or  guests  were  presented,  but 
simply  said,  "  My  dears,  I  am  an  invalid,"  and  her  sad, 
pale  face  and  sunken  eyes  proved  the  expression.  She  is 
an  invalid  now ;  but  an  observer  would  say,  contemplat- 
ing her,  "A  noble  woman,  God's  best  gift  to  man."  It 
was  that  woman  who  taught  the  President,  after  she 


"PLAIN   PEOPLE   FKOM   TENNESSEE."  245 

became  his  wife ;  and  in  all  their  early  years  she  was  his 
assistant  counsellor  and  guide. 

Liable  to  be  arrested  for  the  slightest  offense ;  ofttimes 
insulted  by  the  rabble,  Mrs.  Johnson  performed  the  per- 
ilous journey  from  Greenville  to  Nashville.  Few  who 
were  not  actual  participators  in  the  civil  war  can  form  an 
estimate  of  the  trials  of  this  noble  woman.  Invalid,  as 
she  was,  she  yet  endured  exposure  and  anxiety,  and 
passed  through  the  extended  lines  of  hostile  armies, 
never  uttering  a  hasty  word,  or,  by  her  looks,  betraying 
in  the  least  degree  her  harrowed  feelings.  She  is  remem- 
bered by  friend  and  foe  as  a  lady  of  benign  countenance 
and  sweet  and  winning  manners. 

During  her  husband's  administration,  the  heavy  dutieL 
and  dubious  honors  of  the  White  House  were  performed 
by  her  oldest  daughter,  Martha  Patterson,  the  wife  of 
Senator  Patterson  of  Tennessee.  That  lady's  utterance, 
soon  after  entering  the  White  House,  was  a  key  to  her 
character,  yet  scarcely  a  promise  of  her  own  distinguished 
management  of  the  President's  house.  She  said :  "  We 
are  plain  people  from  the  mountains  of  Tennessee,  called 
here  for  a  short  time  by  a  national  calamity.  I  trust  too 
much  will  not  be  expected  of  us."  The  career  of  Mrs. 
Lincoln  had  chilled  the  people  to  expect  little  from  the 
feminine  administrator  of  the  White  House;  but  from 
Martha  Patterson  they  received  much,  and  that  of  the 
most  unobtrusive  and  noble  service. 

The  family  of  the  new  President  arrived  in  June. 
Here  was  a  new  field  entirely  for  the  diffident  woman 
who  was  compelled  to  do  the  honors,  in  lieu  of  her 
mother — a  confirmed  invalid.  The  house  looked  anything 
but  inviting.  Soldiers  had  wandered  unchallenged  through 


246  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

the  entire  suites  of  parlors.  The  East  Room,  dirty  and 
soiled,  was  filled  with  vermin.  Guards  had  slept  upon 
the  sofas  and  carpets  till  they  were  ruined,  and  the  im- 
mense crowds  who,  during  the  preceding  years  of  war, 
filled  the  President's  house  continually  had  worn  out  the 
already  ancient  furniture.  No  sign  of  neatness  or  com- 
fort greeted  their  appearance,  but  evidences  of  neglect 
and  decay  everywhere  met  their  eyes.  To  put  aside  all 
ceremony  and  work  incessantly,  was  the  portion  of  Mrs. 
Patterson  from  the  beginning.  It  was  her  practice  to 
rise  very  early,  don  a  calico  dress  and  spotless  apron,  and 
then  descend  to  skim  the  milk  and  attend  to  the  dairy 
before  breakfast.  Remembering  this  fact,  of  a  President's 
daughter,  in  the  President's  house,  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, for  a  brief  moment,  let  us  cease  to  bemoan  the 
homely  virtues  of  our  grandmothers  as  forever  dead  and 
buried. 

At  the  first  reception  of  President  Johnson,  held  Janu- 
ary 1,  1866,  the  White  House  had  not  been  renovated. 
Dingy  and  destitute  of  ornament  Martha  Patterson  had 
by  dint  of  covering  its  old  carpets  with  pure  linen,  and 
hiding  its  wounds  with  fresh  flowers,  and  letting  her  beau- 
tiful children  loose  in  its  rooms,  given  it  an  aspect  of 
Durity,  beauty  and  cheer,  to  which  it  had  long  been  a 
stranger. 

In  the  spring,  Congress  appropriated  thirty  thousand 
dollars  to  the  renovation  of  the  White  House.  After 
consulting  various  firms,  Mrs.  Patterson  found  that  it 
would  take  the  whole  amount  to  furnish  simply  the  par- 
lors. Feeling  a  personal  responsibility  to  the  government 
for  the  expenditure  of  the  money,  unlike  her  predecessor, 
she  determined  not  to  surpass  it.  She  made  herself  its 


THE  BLUE  ROOM. 
INSIDE  THE  WHITE  BOISE.— WASHINGTON. 


WRESTLING  WITH   RAGS   AND   RUINS.  247 

agent,  and  superintended  the  purchases  for  the  dismantled 
house  herself.  Instead  of  seeking  pleasure  by  the  sea,  or 
ease  in  her  own  mountain  home,  the  hot  summer  waxed 
and  waned  only  to  leave  the  brave  woman  where  it  found 
her,  wrestling  with  rags  and  ruins  that  were  to  be  reset, 
repolished,  "  made  over  as  good  as  new."  For  herself  ? 
No,  for  her  country ;  and  all  this  in  addition  to  caring  for 
husband,  children  and  invalid  mother. 

The  result  of  this  ceaseless  industry  and  self-denial 
was,  the  President's  house  in  perfect  order  and  thoroughly 
renovated  from  top  to  bottom.  When  it  was  opened  for 
the  winter  season,  the  change  was  apparent  and  marvel- 
ous, even  to  the  dullest  eyes,  but  very  few  knew  that  the 
fresh,  bright  face  of  the  historic  house  was  all  due  to  the 
energy,  industry,  taste  and  tact  of  one  woman,  the  Presi- 
dent's daughter.  The  warm  comfort  of  the  dining  room, 
the  exquisite  tints  of  the  Blue  Eoom,  the  restful  neutral 
hues  meeting  and  blending  in  carpets  and  furniture  hi 
many  rooms  of  the  White  House  still  remain  harmonious 
witnesses  of  the  pure  taste  of  Martha  Patterson.  The 
dress  of  the  ladies  of  the  White  House  was  equally  re- 
markable. The  public  had  grown  to  expect  loud  display 
in  the  costume  of  its  occupants.  But  all  who  went  to  see 
the  "  plain  people  from  Tennessee  "  overloaded  with  new 
ornaments,  were  disappointed.  Instead,  they  saw  beside 
the  President  a  young,  golden-haired  woman,  dressed  in 
full  mourning,  —  the  sad  badge  still  worn  for  the  gallant 
husband  slain  by  war, — and  a  slender  woman  with  a  single 
white  flower  in  her  dark  hair.  Instead  of  the  bare  bosom 
and  arms,  the  pronounced  hues  and  glittering  jewels 
which  had  so  long  obtained  in  that  place,  they  saw  soft 
laces  about  the  throat  ending  the  high  corsage ;  a  robe  of 


248  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

soft  tints  and  a  shawl  of  lace  veiling  the  slender  figure. 
It  was  like  a  picture  in  half  tints,  soothing  to  the  sight ; 
yet  the  dark  hair,  broad  brow  and  large  eyes  were  full  of 
silent  force  and  reserved  power.  Little  was  expected, 
even  in  dress,  of  these  "  plain  people  from  Tennessee," 
yet  the  chaste  elegance  of  their  attire  was  never  surpassed 
by  any  ladies  of  the  White  House,  and  its  memory  re- 
mains an  example  which  it  is  a  pity  that  ladies  of  society 
are  so  slow  to  imitate. 

The  impression  made  upon  the  public  mind  by  the  tone 
and  spirit  of  their  attire  is  significant  as  gathered  from 
the  utterance  of  contemporaneous  newspapers.  It  be- 
trays how  dress  of  an  opposite  character  always  affects 
unperverted  minds.  A  journal  of  the  day  says  :  "  Mrs. 
Patterson,  who  stood  at  the  right  of  the  President,  wore  a 
black  Lyons  velvet,  a  shawl  of  white  thread  lace  falling 
over  her  dress.  The  simple,  unaffected  grace  of  this  lady, 
and  her  entire  freedom  from  pretension,  either  in  garb  or 
manner,  attracted  highly  favorable  comment.  Mrs.  Pat- 
terson is  quite  a  young  lady,  and  when  some  of  the  bare- 
necked would-be  juvenile  dowagers  were  presented  to 
her,  the  contrast  was  entirely  in  favor  of  the  President's 
daughter." 

"  Mrs.  Stover  assisted  the  President,  and  won  golden  opinions 
from  sensible  people  for  her  faultless  taste,  and  high-necked 
costume  in  a  large  crowd  of  bare  busts.  Elderly  ladies,  whose 
truthful  wrinkles,  despite  their  raven  locks,  betrayed  their  years, 
stood  about  her  in  low  bodices,  exposing  to  view  shoulders  long 
ago  bereft  of  beauty  and  symmetry.  Mothers,  whose  daughters 
walked  beside  them,  in  similar  attire,  gathered  about  her  in 
their  flashing  diamonds  and  expensive  apparel,  but  no  peer  of 
hers  eclipsed  her  rich  simplicity.  Alone  she  stood,  so  taste- 


BEFORE   DINNER.  249 

fully  arrayed  that  the  poor  who  came  were  not  abashed  by  her 
presence,  nor  the  rich  offended  by  her  rarer  toilette.  The  per- 
fect harmony  of  her  appearance  pleased  the  eyes  of  all." 

The  spirit  of  these  comments  redeems  them  from  the 
faintest  touch  of  Jenkinsism.  In  this  connection,  it  is  easy 
to  understand  the  comment  of  a  woman  of  fashion,  on 
Mrs.  Stover.  She  said :  "  She  has  very  fine  points,  which 
would  make  any  woman  a  belle,  if  she  knew  how  to  make 
the  most  of  them." 

The  state  dinners  given  by  President  Johnson,  were 
never  surpassed  in  any  administration.  They  were  con- 
ducted on  a  generous,  almost  princely  scale,  and  reflected 
lasting  honor  upon  his  daughter,  to  whom  was  committed 
the  entire  care  and  arrangement  of  every  social  enter- 
tainment. Simple  and  democratic  in  her  own  personal 
tastes,  Mrs.  Patterson  had  a  high  sense  of  what  was  due 
to  the  position,  and  to  the  people,  from  the  family  of  the 
President  of  a  great  Nation.  This  sense  of  duty  and  jus- 
tice led  her  to  spare  no  pains  in  her  management  of  official 
entertainments,  and  the  same  high  qualities  made  her 
keep  the  White  House  parlors  and  conservatories  open 
and  ready  for  the  crowds  of  people  who  daily  visited 
them,  at  any  cost  to  her  own  taste  or  comfort. 

The  following  sketch  of  the  last  state  dinner  given  by 
President  Johnson,  written  by  a  personal  friend,  is  so 
vivid  and  life-like,  bringing  the  historic  house  so  near,  in 
the  closing  hours  of  an  administration,  I  am  constrained 
to  give  it  to  you: 

"  Late  in  the  afternoon,  I  was  sitting  in  the  cheerful  room 
occupied  by  the  invalid  mother,  when  Mrs.  Patterson  came  for 
me  to  go  and  see  the  table.  The  last  state  dinner  was  to  be 


250  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

given  this  night,  and  the  preparation  for  the  occasion  had  been 
commensurate  with  those  of  former  occasions. 

"  I  looked  at  the  invalid,  whose  feet  had  never  crossed  the 
apartment  to  which  we  were  going,  and  by  whom  the  elegant 
entertainments,  over  which  her  daughters  presided,  were  totally 
unenjoyed.  Through  the  hall,  and  down  the  stairway,  I  fol- 
lowed my  hostess,  and  stood  beside  her  in  the  grand  old  room. 

"  It  was  a  beautiful,  and  altogether  a  rare  scene,  which  I 
viewed  in  the  quiet  light  of  that  closing  winter  day.  The  table 
was  arranged  for  forty  persons,  each  guest's  name  being  upon 
the  plate  designated  on  the  invitation  list.  In  the  centre  stood 
three  magnificent  ormolu  ornaments,  filled  with  fadeless  French 
flowers,  while,  beside  each  plate,  was  a  bouquet  of  odorous  green- 
house exotics.  It  was  not  the  color  or  design  of  the  Sevres 
China,  of  green  and  gold,  the  fragile  glass,  nor  yet  the  massive 
plate,  which  attracted  my  admiration,  but  the  harmony  of  the 
whole,  which  satisfied  and  refreshed.  From  the  heavy  curtains, 
depending  from  the  lofty  windows,  to  the  smallest  ornament  in 
the  room,  all  was  ornate  and  consistent.  I  could  not  but  con- 
trast this  vision  of  grandeur  with  the  delicate,  child-like  form 
of  the  woman  who  watched  me  with  a  quiet  smile,  as  I  enjoyed 
this  evidence  of  her  taste,  and  appreciation  of  the  beautiful. 
All  day  she  had  watched  over  the  movements  of  those  engaged 
in  the  arrangement  of  this  room,  and  yet  so  unobtrusive  had 
been  her  presence,  and  so  systematically  had  she  planned,  that 
no  confusion  occurred  in  the  complicated  domestic  machinery. 
For  the  pleasure  it  would  give  her  children,  hereafter,  she  had 
an  artist  photograph  the  interior  of  the  apartment,  and  he  was 
just  leaving  with  his  trophy,  as  we  entered.  All  was  ready  and 
complete,  and  when  we  passed  from  the  room,  there  was  still 
time  for  rest  before  the  hour  named  in  the  cards  of  invitation. 

"It  was  almost  twilight,  as  we  entered  the  East 

Room,  and  its  sombreness  and  wondrous  size  struck  me  forcibly. 
The  hour  for  strangers  and  visitors  had  passed,  and  we  felt  at 
liberty  to  wander,  in  our  old-fashioned  way,  up  and  down  its 
great  length." 


THE   MEMOEY    OF   THAT   AFTERNOON.  251 

"  It  was  softly  raining,  we  discovered,  as  we  peered  through 
the  window,  and  a  light  fringe  of  mist  hung  over  the  trees  in 
the  grounds.  The  feeling  of  balmy  comfort  one  feels  in  watch^ 
ing  it  rain,  from  the  window  of  a  cozy  room,  was  intensified  by 
the  associations  of  this  historic  place,  and  the  sadness  of  time 
was  lost  in  the  outreachings  of  eternity.  Its  spectral  appear- 
ance, as  we  turned  from  the  window  and  looked  down  its  shad- 
owy outlines,  the  quickly  succeeding  thoughts  of  the  many  who 
had  crowded  into  its  now  deserted  space,  and  the  remembrance 
of  some  who  would  no  more  come,  were  fast  crowding  out  the 
practical,  and  leaving  in  its  place  mental  excitement,  and  spirit- 
ualized nervous  influences.  Mrs.  Patterson  was  the  first  to  note 
the  flight  of  time,  and,  as  we  turned,  to  leave  with  the  past 
the  hour  it  claimed,  her  grave  face  lighted  up  with  a  genuinely 
happy  expression,  as  she  said :  '  I  am  glad  this  is  the  last  enter- 
tainment ;  it  suits  me  better  to  be  quiet,  and  in  my  own  home. 
Mother  is  not  able  to  enjoy  these  things.  Belle  is  too  young, 
and  I  am  indifferent  to  them — so  it  is  well  it  is  almost  over.' 

"  As  she  ceased  speaking,  the  curtains  over  the  main  entrance 
parted,  and  the  President  peered  in,  '  to  see,'  he  said,  *  if  Mar- 
tha had  shown  me  the  portraits  of  the  Presidents.'  Joining 
him  in  his  promenade,  we  passed  before  them,  as  they  were 
hanging  in  the  main  hall,  he  dwelling  on  the  life  and  character 
of  each,  we  listening  to  his  descriptions,  and  personal  recollec- 
tions. 

"  At  the  dinner,  afterwards,  not  the  display  of  beautiful  toil- 
ettes, nor  the  faces  of  lovely  women,  could  draw  from  my  mind 
the  memory  of  that  afternoon.  More  than  ever,  I  was  con- 
vinced that  the  best  of  our  natures  is  entirely  out  of  the  reach 
of  ordinary  events,  and  the  finest  fibres  are  rarely,  if  ever,  made 
to  thrill  in  sympathy  with  outward  influences.  Grave  states- 
men, and  white-haired  dignitaries  chatted  merrily  with  fair 
young  ladies,  or  sedate  matrons  ;  but  turn  where  I  would,  the 
burden  of  my  thoughts  were  the  remarks  of  Mrs.  Patterson, 
whose  unselfish  devotion  to  her  father,  deserves  a  more  fitting 
memorial  than  this  insignificant  mention.  With  her  opposite 


252  TEX   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

him,  and  by  her  proximity,  relieving  him  of  much  of  the  neces- 
sity of  entertaining,  he  enjoyed  and  bestowed  pleasure,  and  won 
for  these  social  entertainments  a  national  reputation. 

"  During  the  impeachment  trial  of  her  father,  unflinchingly 
Mrs.  Patterson  bent  every  energy  to  entertain,  as  usual,  as  be- 
came her  position,  wearing  always  a  patient,  suffering  look. 
Through  the  long  weeks  of  the  trial,  she  listened  to  every  re- 
quest, saw  every  caller,  and  served  every  petitioner,  (and  only 
those  who  have  filled  this  position,  know  how  arduous  is  this 
duty,)  hiding  from  all  eyes  the  anxious  weight  of  care  oppress- 
ing herself.  That  she  was  sick  after  the  acquittal,  astonished 
nobody  who  had  seen  her  struggling  to  keep  up  before." 

But  no  matter  what  the  accusations  against  Andrew 
Johnson,  they  died  into  silence  without  touching  his  fam- 
ily. If  corruption  crossed  the  outer  portals  of  the  White 
House,  the  whole  land  knew  that  they  never  penetrated 
into  the  pure  recesses  of  the  President's  home.  Whatever 
Andrew  Johnson  was  or  was  not,  no  partisan  foe  was 
bitter  or  false  enough  to  throw  a  shadow  of  reproach 
against  the  noble  characters  of  his  wife  and  daughters. 
There  was  no  insinuation,  no  charge  against  them.  There 
was  no  furniture  or  ornaments  gone ;  nor  could  any  one 
say  that  they  had  received  costly  presents  :  —  no  expen- 
sive plate,  no  houses,  horses,  or  carriages.  No  family 
ever  left  Washington  more  respected  by  the  powerful, 
more  bewept  by  the  poor.  From  the  Nation's  House, 
which  they  had  redeemed  and  honored,  they  went  back 
empty-handed  to  their  own  dismantled  home,  followed  by 
the  esteem  and  affection  of  all  who  knew  them.  The 
White  House  holds  the  record  of  their  spotless  fame. 
Generations  will  pass  before,  from  its  grand  old  rooms,  will 
fade  out  the  healing  and  saving  touches  of  one  President's 
daughter. 


DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   THE   WHITE   HOUSE.  253 

The  life  of  the  White  House  under  the  administration 
of  President  Grant  is  a  purely  domestic  one.  It  is  the 
remark  of  all  who  have  known  its  past,  that  the  White 
House  never  looked  so  home-like  as  at  the  present  time. 
It  took  on  this  aspect  under  the  reign  of  Martha  Patter- 
son. But  since  then,  pictures  and  ornaments  havt  been 
added,  one  by  one,  till  all  its  old-time  stiffness  seems  to 
have  merged  into  a  look  of  grand  comfort.  Its  roof  may 
leak  occasionally,  and  it  certainly  was  built  before  the 
day  of  "  modern  conveniences,"  and  may  be  altogether 
inadequate  to  be  the  President's  house  of  a  great  Nation  ; 
nevertheless,  that  Nation  has  no  occasion  to  be  ashamed 
of  its  order  or  adornment  to-day. 

As  in  the  Johnson  administration,  the  house  is  bright- 
ened by  ever-blooming  flowers,  and  the  presence  of  happy 
children.  Mr.  Dent,  the  venerable  father  of  Mrs.  Grant, 
also  makes  a  marked  feature  of  its  social  life,  and  is  the  ob- 
ject not  only  of  the  ceaseless  devotion  of  his  family,  but  of 
the  respect  of  all  their  visitors. 

Mrs.  Grant  is  now,  as  she  always  has  been,  devoted  to 
her  family.  Her  chief  enjoyment  is  in  it,  in  its  cares  and 
pleasures  ;  the  latter,  however,  in  her  present  life,  largely 
preponderating.  Born  without  the  natural  gifts  or  graces 
which  could  have  made  her  a  leader  of  other  minds,  even 
in  the  surface  realm  of  society,  she  is,  nevertheless,  very 
fond  of  social  entertainments,  and  enters  into  them  with 
a  good  nature,  and  visible  enjoyment,  which  at  times  goes 
far  to  take  the  place  of  higher  and  more  positive  charac- 
teristics. If  to  the  affectionate  domestic  life  of  the  White 
House  could  be  added  a  finer  culture  and  higher  intellect- 
ual quality  as  the  highest  social  centre  of  the  land,  giving 
exclusive  tone  to  the  official  society,  it  might  do  more 


254  TEN   YEAES    IN   WASHINGTON. 

than  words  could  tell  to  redeem  from  frivolity  and  vicious 
dissipation  the  fashionable  life  of  the  capital.  Mere  good 
nature,  good  clothes,  and  unutterable  commonplace  are 
not  forces  sufficient  to,  in  themselves,  work  out  this 
reformation. 

On  ^he  whole  it  is  a  sad  sight  to  see  a  President's 
daughter,  an  only  daughter,  at  an  age  when  any  thought- 
ful mother  would  shield  her  from  the  allurements  of  pleas- 
ure, and  shut  her  away  in  safety  to  study  and  grow  to 
harmonious  and  beautiful  womanhood,  suddenly  launched 
into  the  wild  tide  of  frivolous  pleasure.  Thus,  while  the 
daughters  of  Senators  and  Cabinet  ministers,  far  from 
Washington,  under  faithful  teachers,  were  learning  truly 
how  to  live,  and  acquiring  the  discipline  and  accomplish- 
ments which  would  fit  them  to  adorn  their  high  estate, 
Ellen  Grant,  a  gentle  girl  of  seventeen,  with  mind  and 
manners  unfed  and  unformed,  suddenly  "  came  out "  a 
full-fledged  young  woman  of  fashion,  spoken  of  almost 
exclusively  as  the  driver  of  a  phaeton,  and  the  leader  of 
the  all-night  "  German." 

As  a  result,  Washington  is  crowded  with  a  shoal  of 
pretty  girls,  bright  and  lovely  as  God  had  made  them ; 
by  a  false  life,  late  hours,  voluptuous  dances,  made  already 
hard,  old,  blase,  often  before  their  feet  have  touched  the 
first  verge  of  womanhood.  I  think  of  one,  but  one,  amid 
hundreds,  the  daughter  of  a  high  officer,  graceful,  taste- 
ful, the  queen  of  dancers,  and  of  all  night  revels,  but 
empty  of  mind,  hard  of  heart,  brazen  of  manners  !  Who 
looking  on  her  face  can  fail  to  see  that  the  dew  of  inno- 
cence is  brushed  from  it  forever. 

The  prevailing  lack  of  fashionable  society  in  Washing- 
ton, to-day,  is  high  motive,  purity  of  feeling,  a  more 


MRS.    GRANT   AT   HOME.  255 

varied  and  brighter  intelligence.  These  all  exist,  and  in 
no  meagre  proportion,  but  as  scattered  elements,  they 
wait  the  supreme  social  queen,  the  centripetal  soul  which 
shall  draw  them  into  one  potent  and  prevailing  power  that 
shall  lift  the  whole  social  life  of  the  capital  to  a  higher 
plane  of  assthetic  attire,  culture,  and  amusement.  For- 
tunately, Mrs.  Grant  has  been  surrounded  by  numerous 
ladies  in  official  life  of  superior  mental  endowment  and 
culture,  and  true  social  grace.  This  is  especially  true  of 
a  portion  of  "  the  ladies  of  the  Cabinet,"  of  the  Senators' 
wives  from  several  States,  and  of  no  small  number  among 
the  wives  of  Kepresentatives.  Many  ladies,  whose  hus- 
bands are  in  Congress,  bring  the  most  exquisite  tastes  in 
art,  music  and  literature,  and  the  loveliest  of  womanhood 
to  grace  the  life  of  Washington.  For  what  is  termed  its 
"  society  "  in  the  "  season,"  the  pity  is  these  rare  women 
have  no  taste,  it  is  to  them  a  burden,  or  an  offence,  and 
they  have  never  yet  combined  in  organized  force  (which 
alone  is  power)  to  uplift  and  redeem  it. 

Nevertheless,  Washington  is  rapidly  becoming  an  intel- 
lectual as  well  as  social  centre.  The  large  and  varied  in- 
terests which  concentrate  in  a  national  capital  tend  more 
and  more  to  draw  the  highest  intellectual  as  well  as  social 
forces  into  its  life.  These  need  but  assimilation,  fusion, 
unity  and  purpose  to  develop  into  the  most  superb  mani- 
festation of  civilization.  In  looking  back  upon  the  wives 
of  the  Presidents,  we  discover,  with  but  two  or  three 
exceptions,  they  were  women  of  remarkable  powers  and 
exalted  character. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

RECEPTION  DAY  AT  THE   WHITE  HOUSE— GLIMPSES  OF  LIFE. 

Mr*.  Grant  at  Home — A  Reception — Feeling  Good-Natured — Looking  After 
One's  Friends — Ready  to  Forgive— Mr.  Grant's  "  Likeable  Side  " — The 
East  Room  on  a  Reception  Day — "The  Nation's  Parlor" — Rags  and 
Tatters  Departed — The  Work  of  Relic-hunters — Internal  Arrangements — 
Eight  Presidents,  All  In  a  Row — "  As  Large  as  Life  " — Shadows  of  th% 
Departed — A  Present  from  the  Sultan  of  Turkey — A  List  of  Finery— 
A  Scene  Not  Easily  Forgotten — How  They  Wept  for  Their  Martyr—, 
Tales  which  a  Room  Might  Tell— David,  Jonathan  and  Sir  Philip  Sidney 
Superseded — Underneath  the  Gold  and  Lace — "  Into  the  Ear  of  a  Fool- 
ish Girl" — The  Census  of  Spittoons" — "  A  Horror  in  Our  Land" — An 
Under-bred  People—"  We  Talk  too  Loud  "—Preliminaries  to  Perfection— 
"  More  Than  Shakspeare's  Women  " — The  Shadow  of  Human  Nature — 
Two  "  Quizzing"  Ladies — Nothing  Sacred  to  Them — An  Illogical  Dame 
— Her  ' '  Precarious  Organ  ' ' — A  ' '  Vice  that  Thrives  Amid  Christian 
Graces  " — How  some  Pious  People  "  Avenge  their  Defrauded  Souls  " — 
A  Lady  of  Many  Colors — ' '  A  New  Woman  " — A  Vegetable  Compari- 
son—What "a  Good  Little  Girl"  was  Allowed  To  Do— The  Lady  of 
the  Manor — Women  Who  are  Not  Ashamed  of  Womanhood — Observed 
and  Admired  of  All — Another  "  Reigning  Belle  " — Sketch  of  a  Perfect 
Woman — After  the  Lapse  of  Generations— The  "  German  " — "  You  Had 
Better  Be  Shut  Up" — The  "Withering"  of  Many  American  Women — 
Full  Dress  and  No  Dress— What  the  Princess  Ghika  Thinks— A  Young 
Girl's  Dress—"  That  Dreadful  Woman  "—  "My  Wife's  "  Dress— The  Reso- 
lution of  a  Young  Man. 

IT  is  Tuesday — Mrs.  Grant's  day — and  all  the  gay  world 
is  going  to  the  White  House,  besides  a  portion  of  that 
world  which  is  not  gay. 

Mrs.  Grant's  morning  receptions  are  very  popular,  and 
deservedly  so.     This  is  not  because  the  lady  is  in  any 


A   RECEPTION   AT    THE   WHITE   HOUSE.  257 

sense  a  conversationalist,  or  has  a  fine  tact  in  receiving, 
but  rather,  I  think,  because  she  is  thoroughly  good- 
natured,  and  for  the  time,  at  least,  makes  other  people 
feel  the  same.  At  any  rate,  there  was  never  so  little  for- 
mality or  so  much  genuine  sociability  in  the  day-recep- 
tions at  the  White  House  as  at  the  present  time.  Gen- 
eral Babcock  pronounces  your  name  without  startling  you 
out  of  your  boots  by  shouting  it,  as  on  such  occasions  is 
usually  done.  He  passes  it  to  the  President,  the  Presi- 
'dent  to  Mrs.  Grant,  Mrs.  Grant  to  ladies  receiving  with 
her.  After  exchanging  salutations  with  each,  you  pass  on 
to  make  room  for  others,  and  to  find  your  own  personal 
friends  dispersed  through  the  great  rooms.  They  are  in 
each  of  them  ;  loitering  in  the  Blue  Room,  where  the  re- 
ceiving is  going  on ;  chatting  in  the  Green  Room ;  prom- 
enading in  the  East  Room.  You  may  go  through  the 
long  corridor  into  the  state  dining-room,  into  the  conserv- 
atories, full  of  flowers  and  fragrance,  and  back,  if  you 
choose,  to  your  starting-point,  where  the  President  and 
Mrs.  Grant  are  still  receiving. 

This  is  one  of  the  pleasantest  facts  of  these  morning 
receptions — the  informal  coming  down  of  the  President 
to  receive  with  Mrs.  Grant.  I  have  never  been  accused  of 
over  enthusiasm  for  him,  but  find  myself  ready  to  forgive 
in  him  the  traits  which  I  cannot  like,  when  I  see  him,  with 
his  daughter,  beside  Mrs.  Grant.  Then,  it  is  so  perfectly 
evident  that,  whatever  the  President  may  or  may  not  be, 
"  Mr.  Grant "  has  a  very  true  and  likeable  side,  with  which 
nobody  is  so  well  acquainted  as  Mrs.  Grant. 

Here  is  the  East  Room,  that  you  have  read  about  so 
long.  It  never  looked  so  well  before.  There  are  flaws 
in  the  harmony  of  its  decorations  which  we  might  pick 


258  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

at ;  but  we  won't,  as  we  are  not  here  to-day  to  find  fault. 
Besides,  it  is  too  pleasant  to  see  that  the  nation's  parlor, 
erst  so  forlorn,  has  absolutely  taken  on  a  look  of  home 
comfort.  In  proportions  it  is  a  noble  room,  long  and 
lofty.  It  has  seven  windows  —  three  in  front,  facing 
Pennsylvania  avenue  and  Lafayette  square ;  three  look- 
ing out  upon  the  presidential  grounds  and  the  Potomac; 
and  a  stately  bay  window  overlooking  the  Treasury.  It 
has  four  white  marble  mantel-pieces,  two  on  each  side. 
It  has  eight  mirrors,  filling  the  spaces  over  the  mantels' 
and  between  the  windows.  Richly  wrought  lace  curtains 
have  taken  the  place  of  the  tatters  left  there  a  few  years 
ago,  when  the  curtains  of  the  White  House  windows 
were  scattered  over  the  country  in  tags,  taken  home  by 
relic-hunters.  Over  these  hang  draperies  of  crimson 
brocatelle,  surmounted  by  gilt  cornices,  bearing  the  arms 
of  the  United  States.  The  walls  and  ceilings  are  frescoed, 
and  from  the  latter  depend  three  immense  chandeliers  of 
cut  glass,  which,  when  lighted,  blaze  like  mimic  suns. 
On  the  walls  hang  the  oil  portraits,  in  heavy  gilt  frames, 
of  eight  Presidents  of  the  United  States.  Opposite  the 
door,  as  you  enter,  is  the  portrait  of  Filmore.  On  the 
other  side  of  the  mantel,  that  of  Lincoln.  Next  beyond 
the  bay  window,  that  of  Washington ;  all  of  life  size. 
Beyond  the  further  mantel  is  that  of  Franklin  Pierce. 
Above  the  door  opposite,  one  of  John  Adams.  Above 
the  next  door,  of  Martin  Van  Buren ;  the  next,  of  Polk ; 
the  last  above  the  entrance  door,  of  John  Tyler. 

The  carpet  on  the  East  Room,  last  year,  was  presented 
to  the  United  States  by  the  Sultan  of  Turkey.  It  seemed 
like  one  immense  rug,  covering  the  entire  floor,  and  filled 
the  room  with  an  atmosphere  of  comfort,  grand,  soft,  and 


nil.    GREEN    ROOM. 

INSIDE  THE  WHITE  HOUSE WASHINGTON. 


THE   MEMOKY   OF   A   CERTAIN  DAY.  259 

warm.  The  chairs  and  sofas  are  of  carved  wood,  crimson 
cushioned.  A  handsome  bronze  clock  ticks  above  one 
of  the  mantels,  the  others  are  adorned  with  handsome 
bronzes.  The  air  is  summer  warm.  On  the  whole,  isn't 
the  people's  parlor  a  pleasant  place?  I  never  enter  it, 
but  comes  back  to  me  that  tearful  April  morning  when, 
in  the  centre  of  this  floor,  under  the  white  catafalque,  lay 
the  body  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  dead.  The  crowd  pressing 
in  then,  how  different  from  this  one!  Rugged  soldiers 
bent  down  and  kissed  his  face  and  wept,  women  scattered 
flowers  upon  his  breast,  with  their  tears.  Rich  and  poor, 
old  and  young,  black  and  white,  all  crowded  round  his 
coffin,  and  wept  for  him, — one,  only  one,  if  the  most  au- 
gust, of  the  martyrs  of  liberty. 

Think  what  tales  the  room  could  tell,  since  the  day  when 
Abigail  Adams  dried  her  clothes  from  the  weekly  wash, 
in  it,  if  it  but  had  a  tongue.  Stand  here,  and  see  the 
stately  procession  move  by.  Believe  in  your  own  day, 
my  dears.  You  need  not  go  back  to  Sir  Philip  Sidney, 
to  find  a  perfect  gentleman,  nor  to  David  and  Jonathan, 
to  find  faith  and  love  between  man  and  man,  passing  the 
love  of  woman,  nor  to  the  days  of  chivalry,  to  find  true 
knights  who  would  die  for  you.  Here  are  men  bearing, 
under  all  this  glitter  of  gold  and  lace,  bodies  battered  and 
maimed  in  their  country's  cause.  There,  is  a  man,  pour- 
ing foolish  nothings  into  the  ear  of  a  foolish  girl,  who 
would  die  for  the  truth. 

We  are  far  from  being  a  thorough-bred  people.  The 
census  of  spittoons  is  a  horror  in  our  land.  We  talk  too 
loud,  and  too  long;  we  gesticulate  too  much;  we  can  not 
keep  quiet.  We  need,  at  least,  more  capacity  for  repose, 
more  unselfish  consideration  for  the  sensibilities  of  others, 


260  TEN   TEAES   IN  WASHINGTON. 

more  of  the  golden  rule,  before  we  can  flower  into  the 
perfection  of  fine  breeding.  Yet,  no  less  here,  are  men  at 
once  strong  and  gentle,  brave  and  tender,  gallant  and  yet 
true.  Here  are  all  and  more  than  Shakespeare's  women : 
Juliet,  searching  for  her  Romeo ;  Miranda,  looking  through 
her  starry  eyes  for  a  "  thing  divine  "  even  in  the  Red  Room ; 
tender  Imogen;  fair  Titania;  Portia,  with  hair  of  golden 
brown;  and  Desdemona,  imprudent,  fond,  yet  truth  itself. 
Here  is  not  only  the  beauty  and  the  belle,  but  the  sibyl, 
whose  divining  eyes  beyond  volition,  strike  below  every 
sham  and  every  falsehood. 

Yet  here,  too,  falls  the  shadow  of  human  nature.  There 
stand  two  ladies,  whose  supreme  enjoyment  here  is  "quiz^ 
zing."  Among  their  thousand  "  dear  friends "  here,  not 
one  is  too  sacred  to  be  ridiculed.  One  of  these  ladies,  at 
least,  would  feel  as  if  she  had  forfeited  "her  soul's  salva- 
tion," if  she  were  to  go  to  the  theatre,  or  to  give  counte- 
nance to  a  dance;  but  it  does  not  occur  to  her,  that  she 
puts  that  precarious  organ  in  the  slightest  peril,  when  she 
stands  in  a  public  assembly,  and  ridicules  her  friends. 

These  ladies  are  merely  yielding  to  a  vice  which  has 
grown  with  their  years,  strengthened  with  their  strength, 
the  vice  that  thrives  amid  Christian  graces,  the  vice  para- 
mount of  the  Christian  church.  The  most  unkind  people 
whom  I  have  ever  known,  have  been  distinguished  for  an 
ostentatious  sort  of  piety.  The  most  uncharitable  con- 
clusions, the  most  pitiless  judgments,  the  most  merciless 
ridicule,  that  I  have  ever  listened  to,  of  poor  human  beings, 
I  have  heard  from  people  high  in  the  church,  not  from 
people  of  the  so-called  "world."  This,  not  because  the 
normal  human  nature  in  either  differs,  but  because  the 
people  of  the  world  have  a  thousand  outlets  and  activities 


THE  LADY  OF  THE  MANOK.  261 

which  draw  them  away  from  microscopic  inspection  of 
the  flaws  in  their  neighbors;  while  ascetic  pietists,  denied 
legitimate  amusements,  shut  out  from  innocent  recreation, 
avenge  their  defrauded  souls  by  feeding  them  on  small 
vices.  I  offer  no  defence  for  a  life  of  folly;  there  is 
nothing  I  should  dread  more,  save  a  life  of  sin.  Yet,  if  I 
were  to  make  a  choice,  I  would  choose  foolishness  rather 
than  meanness. 

This  lady,  flashing  by  in  many  hues,  represents  what 
one  sees  continually  in  Washington — a  new  woman.  Not 
new  to  the  city  merely,  but  new  to  .position  and  honor. 
These  are  but  slight  external  accidents  to  a  nature  that 
has  ripened  from  within,  drawing  culture,  refinement,  and 
dignity  out  of  the  daily  opportunities  of  retired  life.  But, 
when  the  public  position  is  all  that  gives  the  honor,  how 
easy  to  tell  it !  There  is  all  the  difference  in  the  quality 
of  the  put-on,  puckering  manner,  and  the  simple  dignity 
of  real  ladyhood,  that  there  is  between  the  quality  of  a 
persimmon  and  a  pomegranate.  All  she  has  is  new.  She, 
herself,  is  new.  Her  bearing  and  her  honors  do  not  blend. 
There  is  no  soft  and  fine  shading  of  thought,  of  manner, 
of  accent,  of  attire.  The  sun  of  prosperity  may  strike 
down  to  a  rarer  vein,  and  draw  it  outward,  to  tone  down 
this  boastful  commonplace;  but  we  must  bear  the  glare, 
the  smell  of  varnish,  and  the  crackle  of  veneering,  during 
the  process. 

When  I  was  a  very  good  little  girl,  I  was  allowed  to 
read  Mrs.  Sherwood's  Lady  of  the  Manor,  on  Sunday.  I 
read,  and  thought  that  heaven  on  earth  must  be  shut  up 
in  a  manor  house.  When  I  grew  to  be  a  somewhat  big- 
ger girl,  sailing  down  the  Hudson,  a  manor  house,  rich  in 
historic  recollections,  was  pointed  out  to  me.  And  here, 


262  TEN   TEAES    IN   WASHINGTON. 

in  my  summer-time,  comes  the  lady  of  this  manor  house, 
drops  her  gentle  courtesy,  and  gives  me  her  hand,  making 
more  than  real  the  enchanted  story  of  childhood.  The 
lady  of  the  manor  in  crude  Washington  revives  the 
stately  graces  of  old  days. 

How  quaint  and  rare  they  are !  How  I  look  and  long 
for  it ;  how  glad  I  am  when  I  find  it, — that  indefinable, 
yet  ever-felt  presence  of  fine  womanliness,  a  thing  as 
precious  as  the  highest  manliness, — each  the  rarest  efflo- 
vescence  of  human  nature.  I  confess  to  a  clinging  adora- 
tion for  it,  whether  felt  in  the  lady  of  the  manor  or  in  the 
sad-eyed  woman  who  cleans  my  gloves.  The  womanli- 
ness that  is  not  ashamed  nor  dissatisfied  with  womanhood, 
nor  yet  vain  of  it;  the  womanliness  that  gives  us  the 
gracious,  blending  dignity  and  sweetness  of  wisdom  and 
humility,  of  self-respect  and  reticence,  of  spirituality  and 
tenderness — that  ineffable  charm  of  femininity,  which  is 
the  counterpart  and  crown  of  manhood,  in  very  distinc- 
tion equal  with  it,  each  together  maintaining  in  equilib- 
rium the  brain  and  soul  of  the  human  race. 

Even  while  I  write  word  comes :  The  lady  of  the 
manor  is  dead.  The  quaint  hood,  the  stately  grace,  the 
winning  smile  we  shall  see  no  more.  All  have  gone  into 
the  darkness  of  death.  And  who  was  the  lady  of  the 
manor,  who  for  three  winters  in  Washington  has  been 
the  observed  and  admired  of  all  who  met  her  in  the 
circles  of  society  ?  She  was  Cora  Livingston  Barton,  the 
reigning  belle  of  Jackson's  administration.  She  was  the 
daughter  of  Edward  Livingston,  who  served  his  country 
as  Member  of  Congress  and  Senator  from  Louisiana,  as 
Secretary  of  State  during  Jackson's  administration,  and 
as  United  States  Minister  to  France.  Her  father  was  as 


A   PICTUKE   OF   A   PERFECT    WOMAN.  263 

distinguished  for  goodness  as  he  was  for  noble  intellect 
and  exalted  public  service,  and  her  mother  was  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  women  who  ever  graced  the  Na- 
tional Capital.  She  was  a  social  queen  of  the  rarest 
endowments.  She  was  the  chosen  friend  and  dear  coun- 
sellor of  two  persons  as  opposite  in  nature  and  tempera- 
ment as  General  Jackson  and  Mrs.  John  Quincy  Adams. 
She  was  a  very  queen  of  entertainers,  as  the  wife  of  the 
Secretary  of  State,  entertaining  foreigners  and  Americans 
and  political  foes,  with  an  ease,  elegance  and  fascination 
of  manner,  which  annihilated  alike  all  prejudice  and  ani- 
mosity. She  was  a  classical  scholar,  familiar  with  the  best 
ancient  and  modern  thoughts.  The  chosen  counsellor  of 
her  husband  in  the  gravest  affairs  of  State, — a  self-abne- 
gating mother, — a  devout  Methodist,  she  having  chosen 
that  communion  as  her  own  on  account  of  the  simplicity 
and  fervor  of  its  mode  of  worship. 

Of  this  rare  woman,  our  "  lady  of  the  manor  "  was 
the  only  child.  "Upon  her  she  lavished  extraordinary 
maternal  devotion,  hardly  ever  suffering  her  to  be  out  of 
her  sight.  Her  daughter  had  hardly  reached  girlhood 
when  her  beautiful  mother  assumed  the  simplest  matronly 
attire.  Ever  afterwards  she  seemed  rather  displeased 
than  flattered  when  allusions  were  made  to  her  own  still 
remarkable  appearance." 

Cora  Livingston  was  worthy  to  be  the  child  of  such  a 
mother.  She  was  the  most  famous  belle  of  the  Jackson 
administration.  She  married  Thomas  Barton,  who  went 
as  Secretary  of  Legation  with  her  father,  the  Minister  to 
France,  and  who  remained  as  Charge  d'  Affaires  when 
Edward  Livingston  returned. 

In   the   course   of   time,  mother  and   daughter,   both 


264  TEN  YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

widows,  spent  their  winters  in  New  York  and  their  sum- 
mers at  Montgomery  Place,  that  grand  old  manor  on  the 
Hudson,  of  which  we  catch  glimpses  through  its  imme- 
morial trees,  as  we  sail  by  on  the  river.  Here,  beautiful 
and  saintly,  that  mother  died,  October,  1860,  at  the  age  of 
seventy-eight. 

Warned  by  physicians  to  seek  a  softer  climate,  after  the 
lapse  of  generations,  in  the  winter  of  1871  the  daughter 
returned  to  Washington,  the  scene  of  her  childish  home 
and  early  triumphs.  She  did  not  belong  to  things  gone 
by.  With  her  two  stately  and  beautiful  nieces  she  be- 
came at  once  the  centre  of  a  rare  group  of  friends,  of 
the  attention  and  reverence  of  the  first  men  in  the  State, 
and  an  object  of  admiring  comment  wherever  she  appeared. 
She  appeared  at  many  morning  receptions.  I  see  her 
now  as  I  saw  her  the  first  time  stepping  from  her  carriage 
into  the  great  portico  of  the  White  House,  across  its  cor- 
ridor to  the  Blue  Room,  with  the  light,  springing  step  of  a 
girl ;  and  yet,  the  soft  clinging  black  dress,  the  quaint 
hood  of  black  silk,  with  its  inside  snowy  ruche,  all  told 
that  she  made  not  the  slightest  pretence  to  youth.  And 
now,  in  these  summer  days,  comes  the  word :  "  While 
packing  some  books  in  a  trunk  to  go  to  Montgomery 
Place,  she  bent  down,  burst  a  blood  vessel  in  the  head, 
and  without  warning  died." 

They  have  all  been  morning  receptions  to  which  I  have 
asked  you, — the  "morning"  ending  at  5  P.  M.  I  can- 
not invite  you  to  go  to  the  "  German,"  which  begins  at 
11  P.  M.  and  ends  at  daybreak.  I  have  too  deep  a  care 
for  your  physical  and  spiritual  health  to  ask  you  to  do 
any  such  thing.  When  you  read  of  the  gay  doings  and 
bright  assemblies  here,  perhaps  you  think  it  hard  som&- 


AMEKICAN  WOMEN.  265 

times  that  you  must  stay  away  in  a  quiet  place  to  work 
or  study.  You  feel  almost  defrauded  because  you  are 
shut  out  from  the  splendor  and  mirth  and  flattery  of 
fashion.  You  long  for  the  pomp  and  glory  of  the  world, 
and  sigh  that  so  little  of  either  falls  on  your  life-path. 
.Thus  I  shall  seem  cruel  to  you  when  I  say  that  you  had 
better  be  shut  up  for  the  next  five  years,  even  in  a  convent, 
silently  growing  toward  a  noble  life  in  the  world  after- 
ward, than  to  be  caught  and  carried  on  by  its  follies  now, 
before  you  have  learned  how  to  live. 

Are  you  young  ?  Then  you  should  be  more  beautiful 
at  twenty-five,  at  thirty,  at  thirty-five,  than  you  are  now. 
Not  with  the  budding  bloom  of  first  youth,  that  is  as 
evanescent  as  it  is  exquisite.  What  a  pity  that  it  is 
beauty's  only  dower  to  so  many  American  women.  They 
waste  it,  lose  it,  then  wilt  and  wither.  I  want  you  so  to 
feed  the  sources  of  life  to-day  that  you  may  grow,  not 
wither ;  that  you  may  bloom,  not  fade,  into  the  perfect 
flower  of  -  womanhood. 

Terpsichore  is  a  sad  sight  to  me ;  not  because  Terpsi- 
chore dances,  for  dancing  in  itself  may  be  as  innocent  as 
a  bird's  flying  ;  not  because  she  loves  beautiful  attire,  for 
exquisite  dress  is  a  feminine  fine  art,  as  meet  for  a  woman 
as  the  flower's  tint,  or  the  bird's  plumage.  I  sigh  at  the 
sight  of  my  pretty  Terpsichore,  because  the  first  bloom 
of  her  exquisite  youth  is  being  exhaled  and  lost  forever 
in  a  feverish,  false  atmosphere  of  being.  Something  of 
delicate  sensibility,  something  of  unconscious  innocence, 
something  of  freshness  of  feeling,  of  purity  of  soul  is 
wasted  with  the  fresh  young  bloom  of  her  cheeks  in  the 
midnight  revel,  lengthened  into  morning ;  wasted  in  the 
heated  dance,  in  the  indigestible  feast,  in  the  wild,  un- 


266  TEN   TEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

healthy  excitement  through  which  she  whirls  night  after 
night.  Terpsichore,  in  her  tattered  tarletan  dress,  creep- 
ing to  bed  in  the  gray  morning,  after  having  danced  all 
night,  is  a  sad  sight  to  see  to  any  one  who  can  see  her  as 
she  is.  Terpsichore's  mother  would  be  a  sadder  sight 
still,  if  she  were  not  a  vexatious  one.  She  brought  back 
from  Europe  the  notion,  which  so  many  of  our  country- 
women think  it  fine  to  bring,  that  "  full  dress  "  is  neces- 
sarily next  to  no  dress.  She  tells  you,  in  a  supreme  tone, 
that  admits  no  denial,  that  you  would  not  be  admitted 
into  the  drawing-room  of  a  court  in  Europe  unless  in  ful/ 
dress,  viz.,  semi-nakedness.  She  would  be  nothing,  if  nov 
European  in  style.  Thus,  night  after  night,  this  mothev 
of  grown-up  daughters  and  sons  appears  in  crowded  assem- 
blies in  attire  that  would  befit  in  outline  a  child  of  eight 
years  of  age.  If  we  venture  to  meet  her  ipse  dixit  on 
European  style,  with  the  assurance  of  the  Princess  Hele- 
na, Ghika,  Dora  D'  Istria,  one  of  the  most  learned  and 
beautiful  women  of  this  world,  that  the  conventional 
society  dress  of  Europe  is  more  immodest  than  any  she 
saw  while  traveling  over  the  mountains  and  valleys  of 
the  East,  she  will  tell  you  that  Princess  Ghika  "  is  not  an 
authority  on  dress  in  Paris,"  which  is  doubtless  true. 

Thus,  in  republican  Washington,  in  glaring  drawing- 
rooms,  we  are  treated  to  a  study  of  female  anatomy, 
which  is  appalling.  Don't  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  I 
want  every  lady  to  go  to  a  party  in  a  stuff  dress,  drawn 
up  to  her  ears ;  nor  that  I  am  so  prudish  as  to  think  no 
dress  can  be  modestly,  as  well  as  immodestly  low.  No 
matter  how  it  be  cut,  the  way  in  which  a  dress  is  worn  is 
more  impressive  than  the  dress  itself.  I  have  seen  a 
young  girl's  shoulders  rise  from  her  muslin  frock  as 


MEN   AND   MODESTY.  267 

unconsciously  and  as  innocently  as  the  lilies  in  the  garden ; 
and  I  have  come  upon  a  wife  and  mother,  in  a  public  as- 
sembly, so  dressed  for  promiscuous  gaze  that  I  have  in- 
voluntarily shut  my  eyes  with  shame. 

I  never  saw  Lydia  Thompson ;  but  from  what  I  have 
heard  of  her,  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  her  attire 
Ls  just  as  modest  as  that  of  many  ladies  whom  I  meet  at 
fashionable  parties.  They  cast  up  their  eyes  in  horror  at 
the  name  of  poor  Lydia  Thompson.  They  go  to  see  Lydia 
Thompson  !  No,  indeed  !  How  could  their  eyes  endure 
the  sight  of  that  dreadful  woman  ?  No  less  they  them- 
selves offer  gratis,  to  a  promiscuous  company,  every  even- 
ing, a  sight,  morally,  quite  as  dreadful.  The  men,  who 
pay  their  money  to  Lydia  Thompson  and  her  troupe, 
know  that  their  dress  and  their  burlesque,  however  ques- 
tionable, make  at  once  their  business  and  their  livelihood. 
They  cannot  make  the  same  excuse  for  their  wives,  their 
sisters,  and  their  sweethearts,  if  they  see  them  scarcely 
less  modestly  attired  in  some  fashionable  ball-room.  Re- 
member this  ;  if  you  ever  find  yourself  in  such  a  place, 
the  best  men  in  that  room,  at  heart,  are  not  delighted 
with  such  displays.  Being  men,  they  will  look  at  what- 
ever is  presented  to  their  gaze  ;  more,  many  will  compli- 
ment and  flatter  the  very  woman,  whose  vanity  at  heart 
they  pity  or  despise ;  but  it  will  always  be  with  the 
mental  reservation  :  "  My  wife  should  never  dress  like 
that ! "  "I  don't  want  to  see  my  sister  dancing  round 
dances  for  hours  in  the  arms  of  a  man  whom  even  I  can- 
not think  of  without  horror ;  and  if dances  with  him 

again,  I'll  not  go  to  another  '  German  ; '  "  said  a  young 
man  to  his  mother,  this  very  winter. 

This  is  perpetually  the  fact ;  and  it  is  the  danger  and 


268  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

the  shame  of  the  round  dances.  Young  girls  guarded, 
from  babyhood,  from  all  contact  with  vice,  from  all  know- 
ledge of  men  as  they  exist,  in  their  own  world  of  clubs 
and  dissipation,  suddenly  "  come  out "  to  whirl,  night  after 
night,  and  week  after  week,  in  the  arms  of  men  whose 
lightest  touch  is  profanation.  It  would  be  long  before 
it  would  dawn  upon  the  girl  to  dream  of  the  evil  in  that 
man's  heart ;  far  longer  to  learn  the  evil  of  his  life  ;  yet 
no  less,  to  her,  innocent  and  young,  in  the  very  associa- 
tion and  contact  there  is  unconscious  pollution.  There 
is  a  sacredness  in  the  very  thought  of  the  body  which 
God  created  to  be  the  human  home  of  an  immortal  soul. 
Its  very  beauty  should  be  the  seal  of  its  holiness.  Every 
where  in  Scripture  its  sacredness  is  recognized  and  en- 
forced. Therein  we  are  told  that  our  bodies  are  the  tem- 
ples of  God.  We  are  commanded  to  make  them  meet 
temples  for  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  our 
very  dress,  in  its  harmony  and  purity,  should  consecrate, 
not  desecrate,  the  beautiful  home  of  the  soul. 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 
INAUGURATION  DAY  AT  WASHINGTON. 

My  Own  Private  Opinion — Sublime  Humanity  in  the  Lump — The  Climate 
Disagrees— The  Little  "  Sons  of  War  "  Feeling  Bad—"  Think  of  the 
Babies  "—Brutal  Mothers— The  "Boys  in  Blue  "— "  Broke  their  Backs  and 
Skinned  their  Noses  " — Our  Heroes — Later  Festivities — "  Devoted  to 
Art" — Scene  in  "  the  Avenue  " — A  Lively  Time — The  Mighty  Drum-Major 
— West  Point  Warriors  Criticised — Faultlessly  Ridiculous — Pitilessly 
Dressed—"  Taken  for  a  Nigger  "—Magnificent  Display— The  Oldest 
Regiment  in  the  States — The  President — The  Senators — Invitation  of 
the  Coldstream  Guards — The  Strangers — Generals  Sherman  and  Sher- 
idan—Admiral Porter— Sketches  of  Well-known  Men— The  Diplomatic 
Corps— Blacque  Bey— Full  Turkish  Costume— Sir  Edward  Thornton— 
The  Japanese  Minister — Senator  Sumner  Appears — The  Supreme  Court 
—Senator  Wilson— Cragin,  Logan,  and  Bayard— Vice-President  Colfax 
— Enter,  the  President — Congress  Alive  Again — The  Valedictory — 
Taking  the  Oaths—"  The  Little  Gentleman  in  the  Big  Chair  "—His 
Little  Speech— His  Wife  and  Family  Behind— The  New  President- 
Memories  of  Another  Scene— Grand  Jubilation — The  Procession — The 
Curtain  Falls. 

I  DON'T  like  Inauguration  day,  but  I  hope  you  do,  or 
will,  when  I  have  told  you  what  a  gala  day  it  is  to 
many — to  all  who  stay  at  home,  and  catch  the  splendor 
which  it  sheds,  through  lines  of  printer's  ink. 

Surely,  there  is  something  inspiriting  and  uplifting  in 
the  sight  of  massed  humanity,  in  throbbing  drums  and 
soaring  music,  in  waving  pennons  and  flashing  lances,  all 
laden  with  heroic  memories,  all  bristling  with  intelligence 
and  the  conscious  power  of  human  freedom ;  but,  in  our 
climate,  and  at  the  inauguration  season  of  the  year,  en- 


270  TEN   YEAES   IN   WASHINGTON. 

thusiasm  and  patriotism  demand  a  fearful  price  in  nerve, 
muscle,  and  human  endurance.  If  you  doubt  it,  think 
of  the  West  Point  Cadets — those  young  sons  of  war,  in- 
ured to  martial  training — who  sank  to  the  pavements  in 
the  ranks,  at  the  last  inauguration  of  President  Grant,  over- 
come, and  insensible  with  the  bitter  cold  which  chilled  and 
benumbed  even  the  warm  currents  of  their  strong  young 
hearts.  Think  of  the  babies  who  shuddered  and  cried  in 
their  mothers'  arms,  who  would  see  the  sight,  if  baby  died ! 
No  less  the  second  inaugural  procession  of  President 
Grant  transcended,  in  civic  and  military  splendor,  any 
sight  seen  in  Washington  since  the  great  review  when 
the  boys  in  blue,  fresh  from  the  victory  of  bloody  battle- 
fields, broke  their  backs  and  skinned  their  noses,  in  the 
June  sun  of  1865,  for  the  sake  of  shouting  thousands  who 
came  hither  to  behold  them.  Oh  what  a  sight  was  that! 
when  the  bronzed  and  haggard,  and  aged-in-youth  faces 
of  the  boys  before  us,  made  our  hearts  weep  afresh  at 
the  thought  of  the  upturned  faces  of  the  boys  left 
behind — some  in  the  cruel  wilderness,  some  in  half  dug 
graves  on  solitary  hill-sides,  and  lonely  plains — all  left 
behind  forever,  for  freedom's  sake.  Who  that  knew 
old  Washington  can  forget  it  ?  This  is  another  Wash- 
ington. But  here  they  come  !  Safe  from  cold  and  wind, 
thanks  to — I  look  up.  From  this  window,  on  Fifteenth 
street,  you  can  see  Pennsylvania  avenue  past  the  Treas- 
ury building,  (whose  marble  steps  are  boarded  in  from 
the  advancing  people,)  to  the  Executive  Mansion,  glit- 
tering white  through  the  leafless  trees  just  beyond.  Oppo- 
site is  Lafayette  square,  the  prettiest  little  park  of  its 
size  in  the  United  States.  Above,  you  see  the  towering 
mansard  of  Corcoran's  building,  "Devoted  to  Art,"  and 


THE   SIGHTS    OF   INAUGUKATION   DAT.  271 

just  this  side,  the  lofty  brown  front  of  the  Freedman's 
Savings  Bank.  The  avenue  opens  before  you — a  broad, 
straight  vista,  with  garlands  of  flags,  of  every  nation 
and  hue,  flung  across  from  roof  to  roof.  Above  glitters 
an  absolutely  cloudless  sky,  dazzlingly  blue,  and  pitilessly 
cold.  The  very  tree-boughs  swing  like  crystals  glittering 
and  freezing  in  the  sun.  The  air  seems  full  of  rushing 
fiends,  or  rushing  locomotives  running  into  each  other 
with  hideous  shrieks,  whichever  you  please  (on  the  whole, 
I  prefer  locomotives,  being  fresher).  Your  imagination 
need  not  be  Dantean  to  make  you  feel  that  there  is  a 
dreadful  battle  going  on  in  the  air,  above  you  and  about 
you.  The  imps  come  down  and  seize  an  old  man's  hat, 
and  fly  off  with  a  woman's  veil,  and  blow  a  little  boy  into 
a  cellar.  The  bigger  air-warriors,  intent  on  bigger  spoil, 
sweep  down  banners,  swoop  off  with  awnings,  concentrate 
their  forces  into  swirling  cyclones  in  the  middle  of  the 
streets,  and  bang  away  at  plate-glass  windows  till  they 
prance  in  their  sockets. 

Before  such  unfriendly  and  tricksy  foes,  through  the 
biting  air,  comes  the  great  procession.  First,  a  battalion 
of  mounted  police  ;  then  West  Point,  with  its  band  and 
drum-major.  Not  a  sprite  of  the  air  has  caught  the  baton 
of  its  drum-major.  Not  a  sting  of  zero,  has  stiffened  that 
fantastic  arm  as  he  lifts  and  swings  the  symbol  of  his 
foolishness.  He  is  as  inimitable  in  the  bleak  and  dusty 
street  an  when  I  saw  him  last,  on  the  velvet  sward  of 
West  Point,  that  delicious  evening  in  October.  Some- 
thing utterly  ridiculous  to  look  at,  is  refreshing,  and  any- 
thing more  faultlessly  ridiculous  than  the  drum-major  of 
West  Point  I  never  saw. 

I  believe  it  is  fashionable  to  find  fault  with  West  Point ; 


272  TEN  YEAHS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

but  I  wouldn't  give  much  for  anybody  who  could  see 
these  boys  and  not  admire  them.  They  have  their  faults 
(their  caste  and  their  army  exclusiveness  sometimes  reaches 
an  absurd  pitch)  but  look  at  them !  What  faces,  what 
muscle,  what  manhood  !  Their  movement  is  the  perfect 
poetry  of  motion ;  a  hundred  men  stepping  as  one.  What 
marching,  and  at  what  odds  !  They  are  so  pitilessly 
dressed  !  Thousands  of  men  come  behind,  warmly  muf- 
fled ;  but  the  West  Point  Cadets  have  on  their  new  uni- 
forms, single  jackets.  More  than  one  will  receive  through 
it  the  seeds  of  death  this  morning.  What  wonder,  that 
two  while  standing  in  line  sank  insensible  with  the  cold, 
not  an  hour  ago.  But,  dear  me !  to  think  that  more  than 
one  of  them  should  be  taken  for  a  "  nigger !  "  The 
colored  Cadet  is  whiter  than  a  dozen  of  his  class-mates, 
and  has  straight  hair. 

In  the  distance  rises,  wave  on  wave,  a  glittering  sea  of 
helmets ;  bayonets  flash,  plumes  wave,  bands  play ;  all 
tell  one  story — the  love  of  military  pomp  and  parade,  the 
pride  and  patriotism  which  brings  these  soldiers  back  to 
celebrate  the  second  inauguration  of  their  chief ;  and  at 
what  cost  of  suffering  to  many  of  them.  What  cold  and 
hunger,  and  delay  on  the  way,  and  now  !  what  nerve  and 
will  it  takes  to  march  in  a  wind  like  this  ! 

After  West  Point  comes  Annapolis.  Pretty  "  Middies,'* 
young  and  slender,  in  their  suits  of  dark  blue !  As  a 
body,  they  are  younger  than  the  West  Pointers,  and 
slighter.  Nor  can  any  comparison  be  drawn  between 
their  marching,  for  the  Middies  drag  their  howitzers. 
They  look  true  sons  of  their  class ;  and  for  intelligence, 
chivalric  manners,  and  gentle  manhood,  the  true  officer 
of  the  American  navy  is  unsurpassed. 


THE  OBSERVED  OF  ALL  OBSERVERS.       273 

The  Midshipmen  are  followed  by  the  famous  United 
States  Marine  Corps,  then  the  Old  Guard  of  New  York 
with  Dodworth's  band,  the  Washington  Light  Infantry, 
the  Corcoran  Zouaves,  the  Washington  Grenadiers,  the  St. 
Louis  National  Guard.  The  Philadelphia  City  Troop,  in 
navy-blue  jackets,  tight  knee-breeches,  white  braid  trim- 
ming, high  boots,  bearskin  helmets  with  silver  mountings 
— the  oldest  regiment  in  the  United  States,  two  years  older 
than  the  government,  organized  in  1774,  and  furnished 
men  to  every  war  of  this  country  since.  It  was  in  the 
battles  of  Trenton  and  Princeton,  in  the  Revolutionary 
War,  and  has  in  its  armory  a  letter  from  General  Wash- 
ington thanking  the  regiment  for  its  services. 

Now,  the  President's  mounted  guard,  in  dark  blue,  yel- 
low-trimmed uniform,  regulation-hat  and  black  feathers. 
Now,  the  President  in  open  barouche,  drawn  by  four 
horses,  with  the  Senate  Committee,  Senators  Cragin, 
Logan  and  Bayard.  The  President  looks  decidely  cooler 
than  usual,  and  less  indifferent ;  at  least  he  has  just  lifted 
his  hat  to  the  shouting  crowd  in  the  street,  which  requires 
an  impulse  of  self-denial  this  morning. 

Now  come  the  Boston  National  Lancers.  They  have 
left  their  milk-white  steeds  there,  and  to  their  chagrin,  no 
doubt,  are  mounted  on  sorry  Virginian  roans  instead, — 
old  road  and  car  horses,  who  act  dazed  and  daft  under 
their  light  unwonted  burdens.  The  Lancers  are  the  old- 
est cavalry  regiment  of  Massachusetts,  organized  in  1836, 
under  Governor  Edward  Everett.  This  dashing  looking 
squadron,  which  has  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the 
most  perfect  military  organizations  of  the  United  States, 
is  dressed  in  scarlet  cloth  coats,  faced  with  a  light  blue 
and  trimmed  with  gold  lace,  sky-blue  pants  with  yellow 


274  TEN  TEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

stripes  on  sides,  Polish  dragoon  cap,  gold  trimmings, 
flowing  white  feathers  and  aiguilktte,  cavalry  boots  with 
patent  leather  tops,  white  belts  and  shoulder  straps ; 
red  epaulettes,  with  blue  trimmings  for  the  privates,  and 
gold  for  the  officers,  and  armed  with  cavalry  sabre  and 
lance,  on  which  is  appended  a  small  red  flag. 

The  Albany  Burgess  Corps,  another  famous  regiment, 
led  by  Capt.  Henry  B.  Beecher,  son  of  the  Rev.  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  make  a  splendid  appearance.  They  are 
uniformed  in  scarlet  coats,  trimmed  with  white,  light  blue 
pants,  buff  stripe,  and  bearskin  shakoes,  with  gold  clasp 
— similar  to  the  celebrated  English  Coldstream  Guards. 

But  we  shall  not  reach  the  capitol  till  next  week,  unless 
we  leave  the  rest  of  this  splendid  procession, — the  "  or- 
phans of  soldiers  and  sailors,"  the  burnished  and  flower- 
garlanded  fire-engines,  the  brave  firemen,  black  and  white, 
and  the  civic  societies.  The  strangers  who  rushed  on  to 
inauguration,  swarm  the  galleries  till  they  overflow 
as  they  did  on  Credit  Mobilier  days.  Generals  Sherman, 
and  Sheridan  and  Admiral  Porter ;  the  first  tall  and  red ; 
the  second,  little,  round,  red  and  bullet-headed  ;  the  third, 
tall,  straight  and  black,  are  all  being  intently  gazed  at. 

The  Diplomatic  Corps  enter  the  chamber  by  the  main 
entrance,  led  by  Blacque  Bey,  the  dean  of  the  Corps,  a 
tall,  dark,  gray-haired,  handsome  man,  wearing  scarlet 
fez  and  full  Turkish  court  regalia ;  next,  the  English  Min- 
ister, Sir  Edward  Thornton,  a  white-haired,  ruddy-faced, 
black-eyed,  shrewd-looking  gentleman ;  next,  the  Peru- 
vian Minister,  Colonel  Freerye,  followed  by  the  Italian 
and  French  Ministers,  with  all  the  representatives  of  for- 
eign governments,  in  order  of  seniority — over  fifty  min- 
isters, secretaries  and  attaches  in  full  uniform,  excepting 


TAKING   THE   OATHS.  275 

Mr.  Mori,  Minister  from  Japan,  in  citizen's  dress.  Just 
now  Mr.  Simmer  appears,  for  the  first  time  in  months. 
He  looks  pale,  and  shows  the  traces  of  the  acute  suffering 
through  which  he  has  passed.  His  appearance  creates  a 
buzz  on  floor  and  in  gallery,  and  many  senators  go  over 
to  him  and  exchange  friendly  greetings.  Now  the  Su- 
preme Court  appear,  in  their  robes  of  office,  kicking  them 
high  up  behind,  as  usual,  and  take  their  seats  in  front  of 
the  Vice-President's  desk.  At  fifteen  minutes  to  twelve 
o'clock,  Vice-President  elect  Wilson,  escorted  by  Senators 
Cragin,  Logan,  and  Bayard,  comes  down  the  centre  aisle 
and  takes  his  seat  at  the  right  of  Vice-President  Coif  ax. 

At  three  minutes  before  twelve,  the  President  appears, 
leaning  on  the  arm  of  Senator  Cragin,  followed  by  Logan 
and  Bayard,  and  takes  the  seat  assigned  him,  in  front  of 
the  Secretary's  table.  A  deep  hush  falls  on  the  throng, 
as  if  something  awful  were  about  to  happen.  It's  a  sort  of 
Judgment-Day  atmosphere,  yet  nothing  more  terrific  fol- 
lows than  the  pleasant  voice  of  Vice-President  Colfax,  be- 
ginning the  words  of  his  valedictory.  (My !  I  forgot  to 
say  that  the  dying  Congress  has  come  to  life  again,  and 
is  comfortably,  and  perforce  quietly  seated  between  the 
Senate  and  Diplomatic  Corps.)  Now  comes  the  new  Vice- 
President's  little  speech.  Then  the  oaths  of  office,  the 
swearing  in  of  new  senators,  the  proclamation  of  the 
President  convening  an  extra  session  of  the  Senate,  to 
begin  this  minute,  when  all  start  for  the  back  door — no, 
it's  the  front  door  of  the  Capitol,  the  Supreme  Court 
leading,  kicking  up  their  gowns  worse  than  usual. 

On  the  eastern  portico,  what  do  we  see  ?  Below,  a 
vast  mass  of  human  beings,  line  on  line  of  soldiers — cav- 
alry, artillery  and  infantry ;  a  line  of  battle  flags  at  the 


276  TEN   TEAKS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

base  of  the  steps- — shot-riddled,  battle-torn,  all  shuddering 
or  numb  in  the  freezing  air.  Before  us,  a  little  gentle- 
man sits  down  in  a  big  chair — Washington's  inaugural 
chair,  we  are  told.  (Oh !  no,  we're  not  at  all  sentimental.) 
A  big  gentleman,  the  Chief  Justice,  who  has  most  un- 
accountably fringed  out  in  a  long  grey  beard  and  a  muf- 
fling moustache,  holds  forth  with  solemnity  a  big  Bible. 
The  little  gentleman  kisses  it — kisses  these  words  from 
the  eleventh  chapter  of  Isaiah : 

" '  And  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  rest  upo'n  him,  the  spirit  of 
wisdom  and  understanding,  the  spirit  of  counsel  and  might,  the 
spirit  of  knowledge  and  of  the  fear  of  the  Lord. 

"  '  And  shall  make  him  of  quick  understanding  in  the  fear  of 
the  Lord ;  and  he  shall  not  judge  after  the  sight  of  his  eyes, 
neither  reprove  after  the  hearing  of  his  ears.' 

Then  he  rises,  and,  with  manuscript  in  his  hands,  be- 
gins to  "  battle  with  the  breeze,"  and  to  read  his  inaugu- 
ral, which  nobody  hears.  Behind  him  sits  his  wife  and 
daughter,  the  ladies  of  the  Cabinet,  the  Diplomatic  Corps. 
What  a  compound  of  the  ornamental  and  comfortable? 
Yet  nobody  is  comfortable — not  here.  We  can  catch  no 
word  through  the  outbearing  wind,  yet  know  that  for  the 
second  time  Ulysses  S.  Grant  has  sworn  to  the  oath  of 
office,  according  to  the  constitution,  and  for  four  more 
years  is  made  President  of  the  United  States.  It  seems 
but  yesterday  we  saw  a  loftier  head,  a  sadder  face,  bowed 
above  that  book,  within  one  little  month  of  its  eternity ; 
when,  amid  the  booming  of  cannon  and  the  huzzas  of  the 
people,  Abraham  Lincoln  for  the  second  time  was  pro- 
nounced the  people's  President,  and  by  the  same  lips  which 
now  utter  the  same  words  for  another,  a  happier,  a  more 
fortunate  man. 


THE   INAUGURATION   PROCESSION.  277 

Now  the  carnival  of  salute ;  the  Middies  fire  their  how- 
itzers, thirty-seven  guns ;  the  Second  Artillery  fire  twenty- 
one  salvos;  'the  Firemen  ring  the  bells  of  their  engines; 
ten  thousand  men  warm  their  hands  with  hat  swinging, 
and  make  their  throats  sore  with  shouting.  Amid  all, 
the  multitude  and  the  procession  surge  back  towards  the 
Executive  Mansion.  Between  the  latter  and  Lafayette 
square,  the  review,  the  return  march,  the  military  pa- 
geant culminates.  The  President,  with  lady  friends,  en- 
ters the  pavilion  built  for  the  purpose,  and  the  troops 
march  by,  encircling  two  solid  squares;  the  West  Point 
Cadets  appear  below  Corcoran's  building,  marching  down- 
ward, as  the  magnificent  New  York  Regiment — a  thousand 
men — just  arrived  after  an  all  night's  freezing  delay,  have 
reached  Fifteenth  street,  marching  up.  The  entire  body 
of  soldiery  march  and  mass,  till  as  far  as  the  eyes  can 
reach  through  the  glittering  sunshine,  one  only  sees  gleam- 
ing helmets,  flashing  bayonets,  glancing  sabers,  the  Cadets 
on  double  quick,  the  Middies  firing  their  howitzers,  offi- 
cers displaying  fine  horses  and  uniforms,  drum-majors 
tossing  their  batons,  bands  playing,  and  cannon  thunder- 
ing. 

Amid  all  these-  the  four  horses  dashing  before  the  Pres- 
idential barouche,  bear  the  President  to  the  Executive 
door,  which  now  mercifully  shuts  them  from  our  sight. 


CHAPTER  XXVm. 

A  PEEP  AT  AN  INAUGURATION  BALL. 

How  Sixty  Thousand  Dollars  were  Spent — Something  wrong  :  "  'Twas  ever 
Thus  "—Recollection  of  another  Festival— How  "  the  dust "  was  Raised— 
A  Fine  Opportunity  for  a  Few  Naughty  Words — Lost  Jewels — The  Col- 
ored Folks  in  a  Fix— Overpowered  by  Numbers — Six  Thousand  People 
Clamoring  for  their  Clothes  ! — "  Promiscuous  "  Property — A  Magnifi- 
cent "  Grab" — Weeping  on  Window-ledges — Left  Desolate — Walking 
under  Difficulties — The  Exploits  of  Two  Old  Gentlemen — Horace  Greeley 
Loses  his  Old  White  Hat— He  says  Naughty  Words  of  Washington- 
Seeking  the  Lost — Still  Cherished  by  Memory — Some  People  Remind 
General  Chipman — "Regardless  of  Expense" — A  Bali-Room  Built  of 
Wooden  Laths  and  Muslin— A  Little  Too  Cold— Gay  Decorations- 
How  "  Delicate "  Women  can  Endure  the  Cold — Modesty  in  Scanty 
Garments— The  President  Frozen— The  "  Cherubs,  Perched  up  Aloft," 
Refuse  to  Sing — On  the  Presidential  Platform — Ladies  of  Distinction — 
Half-frozen  Beauties — "  They  did  not  Make  a  Pretty  Picture  " — Why  and 
Wherefore  V — A  Protest  againt  "  Shams  " — A  Stolid  Tanner  who  Fought 
his  Way. 

UNTOLD  time,  and  trouble,  and  sixty  thousand  dol- 
lars were  expended  on  the  last  inauguration  ball 
building,  and  yet  there  was  something  the  matter  with 
the  inaugural  ball.      There  is  always  something  the  mat- 
ter with  every  inauguration  ball. 

When  I  wish  to  think  of  a  spot  especially  suggestive 
of  torments,  I  think  of  an  inauguration  ball.  There  was 
the  one  before  the  last,  held  in  the  Treasury  Building. 
The  air  throughout  the  entire  building  was  perforated 
with  a  fine  dust  ground  till  you  felt  that  you  were  taking 
in  with  every  breath  a  myriad  homoeopathic  doses  of  des- 


THE   CLOTHES   OF   SIX  THOUSAND   PEOPLE.  279 

iccated  grindstone.  The  agonies  of  that  ball  can  never 
be  written.  There  are  mortals  dead  in  their  grave  be- 
cause of  it.  There  are  mortals  who  still  curse,  and  swear, 
and  sigh  at  the  thought  of  it.  There  are  diamonds,  and 
pearls,  and  precious  garments  that  are  not  to  their  owners 
because  of  it.  The  scenes  in  those  cloak  and  hat  rooms 
can  never  be  forgotten  by  any  who  witnessed  them.  The 
colored  messengers,  called  from  their  posts  in  the  Treasury 
to  do  duty  in  these  rooms,  received  hats  and  wraps  with 
perfect  facility,  and  tucked  them  hi  loop-holes  as  it  hap- 
pened. But  to  give  them  back,  each  to  its  owner,  that 
was  impossible.  Not  half  of  them  could  read  numbers, 
and  those  who  could  soon  grew  bewildered,  overpowered, 
ill-tempered  and  impertinent  under  the  hosts  that  ad- 
vanced upon  them  for  cloaks  and  hats. 

Picture  it !  Six  or  more  thousand  people  clamoring 
for  their  clothes  !  In  the  end  they  were  all  tumbled  out 
"  promiscuous  "  on  the  floor.  Then  came  the  siege  !  Few 
seized  their  own,  but  many  snatched  other  people's  gar- 
ments— anything,  something,  to  protect  them  from  the 
pitiless  morning,  whose  wind  came  down  like  the  bite  of 
death.  Delicate  women,  too  sensitive  to  take  the  prop- 
erty of  others,  crouched  in  corners,  and  wept  on  window 
ledges ;  and  there  the  daylight  found  them.  Carriages, 
also,  had  fled  out  of  the  scourging  blast,  and  the  men  and 
women  who  emerged  from  the  marble  halls,  with  very 
little  to  wear,  found  that  they  must  "foot  it"  to  their 
habitations.  One  gentleman  walked  to  Capitol  Hill,  nearly 
two  miles,  in  dancing  pumps  and  bare-headed ;  another 
performed  the  same  exploit,  wrapped  in  a  lady's  sontag. 

Poor  Horace  Greeley,  after  expending  his  wrath  on  the 
stairs  and  cursing  Washington  anew  as  a  place  that  should 


280  TEN  TEAKS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

be  immediately  blotted  out  of  the  universe,  strode  to  his 
hotel  hatless.  The  next  day  and  the  next  week  were 
consumed  by  people  searching  for  their  lost  clothes,  and 
General  Chipman  says  that  he  still  receives  letters  de- 
manding articles  lost  at  that  inauguration  ball. 

Well,  our  latest  brought  discomfort,  and  discomfiture 
of  another  sort.  Neither  money,  time  nor  labor  were 
stinted  in  this  leviathan,  that  still  lifts  up  its  broken  and 
propped  up  back  in  Judiciary  square.  The  building  was 
350  feet  long.  The  ball-room  300  by  100  feet.  All  this 
was  temporary,  built  of  light  boards,  lined  with  lighter 
muslin.  You  might  as  well  have  attempted  to  have 
warmed  Pennsylvania  avenue  as  such  a  place  on  such  a 
night.  Twenty-four  hours  before  the  ball  the  wind-devils 
went  at  it.  If  a  host  from  the  pit  had  received  full 
power  to  move  and  dismember  it,  it  could  scarcely  look 
more  forlorn  than  it  did  one  Monday  morning.  They  had 
sat  on  its  spine  in  one  place  till  it  curved  in,  punched  it  up 
in  another  till  it  was  hunchbacked.  They  had  inflated 
its  sides  till  they  swelled  out  like  an  inflated  balloon,  while 
the  air  was  black  with  the  tar-rags,  seaming  its  roof, 
which  flying  imps  were  carrying  up  to  high  heaven. 

No  less  the  official  report  said  of  the  inside :  "  The 
mighty  American  Eagle  spreads  his  wings  above  the  Pres- 
ident's platform.  He  has  suspended,  from  his  pinions, 
streamers  one  hundred  feet  in  length,  caught  up  on  either 
side  by  coats  of  arms.  The  circumference  of  'this  vast 
design  is  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet.  The  President's 
reception  platform  is  sixty  feet  long,  and  thirty  feet  wide. 
Twelve  pilasters  support  alternate  gold-figured,  red  and 
blue  stands,  on  which  are  pots  of  blooming  flowers.  The 
platform  and  steps  are  richly  carpeted.  In  the  rear  of  the 


DANCING  IN  THE   COLD.  28i 

balcony,  are  immense  festoons  of  flags,  banners,  shields, 
radiating  from  a  huge  illuminated  star  of  gas-lights." 

What  were  all  those  white  and  rosy  walls  of  cambric, 
to  the  all-pervading  polar  wave  that  froze  sailors'  fingers, 
and  struck  West  Point  Cadets  to  the  pavements,  in  con- 
gestive chills,  at  noonday?  Why,  they  were  nothing  but 
an  immense  sieve,  to  strain  that  same  polar  wave  through 
on  to  the  persons  of  delicate  (?)  women,  who,  without 
money,  and  without  price,  for  the  sake  of  dubious  admi- 
ration and  commend,  in  promiscuous  assemblies,  outvie 
Lydia  Thompson  in  paucity  of  attire. 

But  the  ball.  My  intention  was  to  say,  that  the  Presi- 
dent was  so  near  frozen  in  the  day-time,  he  was  not  suf- 
ficiently thawed  out  to  appear  under  that  spreading  eagle, 
until  half-past  eleven  o'clock,  when  the  north  wind 
swooped  in  from  behind,  and  he  congealed  again  immedi- 
ately. The  President's  platform  was  at  the  north  end, 
/md  all  the  muslin  splendors  of  the  presidential  dressing 
and  waiting-room  could  not,  and  did  not,  warm  that  polar 
frave.  The  thousands  of  canary-birds  perched  aloft,  who 
were  expected  to  burst  into  simultaneous  song  at  the 
sight  of  him,  and  to  trill  innumerable  preludes  in  honor 
of  Miss  Nelly,  instead,  poor  wretches,  had,  one  and  all, 
gone  to  bed,  with  their  toes  tucked  in  their  feathers,  and 
their  bills  buried  in  their  breasts,  in  dumb  effort  to  keep 
them  from  freezing.  Not  a  canary-bird  sang.  No,  they 
were  as  paralyzed  with  cold  as  the  bipeds  below. 

On  the  presidential  platform,  the  President  and  Mrs. 
Grant  sat,  the  central  figures.  A  little  in  the  rear,  sat 
Mrs.  Fish — stately,  lovely,  and  serene  as  ever;  and  just 
behind  her,  the  Secretary  of  State.  Next,  were  Mrs. 
Boutwell  and  Miss  Boutwell,  and  the  Secretary  of  the 


282  TEN    YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

Treasurj^;  then  came,  dream-like,  Mrs.  Creswell,  hand- 
some Mrs.  Williams,  and  motherly  Mrs.  Delano.  Ellen 
Grant  stood  beside  her  mother,  and  Edith  Fish  hovered 
beside  her's — both  winsome  and  unaffected  girls,  though 
the  girlish  grace  of  the  latter  shows,  already,  the  fine  in- 
tellectual quality  of  her  mother.  The  Governor  of  the 
District,  with  his  wife  and  daughter,  and  numerous  other 
officials,  filled  the  platform. 

Back  of  the  Cabinet  stood  the  Foreign  Ministers,  bereft 
of  their  court  attire,  but  glittering  with  decorations.  Tall 
Lady  Thornton  bent  like  a  reed  in  the  blast ;  and  Madame 
Flores,  the  beautiful  young  wife  of  the  Minister  from 
Equador,  glowed  in  her  warm  rich  beauty,  even  at  zero. 
Alas !  that  all  those  wondrous  tints  of  blue  and  gold,  of 
royal  purple  and  emerald,  of  lavender  and  rose,  all  the 
gleam  of  those  diamonds,  all  the  show  of  necks  and  arms, 
which  was  to  have  made  the  glory  of  this  "  court  circle," 
alas !  that  they  were  all  held  in  eclipse,  by  layers  on  lay- 
ers of  wrappings,  till,  at  a  little  distance,  the  whole  plat- 
form seemed  to  be  filled  with  a  crowd  of  animated  mum- 
mies, set  upright,  whose  motions  were  as  spasmodic  and 
jerky  as  those  of  Mrs.  Jarley's  wax  works.  It  was  very 
sensible — the  only  refuge  from  certain'  death — that  all 
those  necks  and  arms,  diamonds,  pearls,  velvets  and  satins, 
should  hide  away  under  ermine  capes,  cloaks  and  shawls; 
but,  lumped  in  aggregate,  they  did  not  make  a  pretty  pic- 
ture (the  wraps,  I  mean).  Indeed,  the  polar  wave  sub- 
merged the  presidential  platform,  and  made  anything  but 
a  picturesque  success.  And  how  unlucky,  when  for  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  inauguration  balls,  there  was  a 
"cubby"  for  every  hat  and  wrap,  that  every  man  and 
woman  should  be  obliged  to  keep  them  on. 


A  "PRESIDENTIAL  PLATFORM" — WHY?          283 

But  why  a  "presidential  platform,"  and  why  a  private 
presidential  "supper  room"  at  an  inauguration  ball? 
Both  are  vulgarly  pretentious.  Both  are  preposterous, 
in  the  representatives  of  a  republican  people,  in  a  national 
assembly.  I  am  not  a  universal  leveller.  I  respect  the 
inevitable  distinctions  begotten  of  personal  taste  and  con- 
dition. I  make  this  remark  to  add  a  little  force  to  my 
protest  against  meretricious,  and  fictitious  pretence  and 
shams.  The  President,  as  an  individual,  is  not  under  the 
slightest  obligation  to  invite  anybody  that  he  does  not 
want,  to  his  private  dinner  table.  But  when  the  Presi- 
dent, as  the  President,  comes  into  the  presence  of  a  pro- 
miscuous assembly  of  the  people,  through  whose  gift  he 
holds  all  the  horior  he  possesses, — a  citizen  uplifted  by 
citizens  to  the  chief  magistracy  of  their  government,  how 
false  to  republican  fact  is  the  feeling  that  perches  him 
up,  and  hedges  him  about,  with  a  mock  heroic  exclusive- 
ness,  as  if  he  were  a  king,  or  demi-god,  instead  of  a  stolid 
tanner,  who  fought  his  way  to  place  and  power,  conferred 
on  him  by  a  nation  of  stavers  and  fighters  like  himself. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 
THE  UNITED  STATES  TREASURY— ITS  HISTORY. 

The  Responsibilities  and  Duties  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury — "  The 
Most  Remarkable  Man  of  His  Time  " — Three  Extraordinary  Men— Ham- 
ilton Makes  an  Honest  Proposal — How  to  Pay  the  National  Debt — The 
New  Secretary  at  Work — Laying  the  Foundation  of  Financial  Opera- 
tions— The  Mint  at  Philadelphia — A  Little  Personal  Abuse — The  Secre- 
tary Borrows  Twenty  Dollars — Modern  Greediness — The  Genius  Be- 
comes a  Lawyer — Burning  of  Records — Hunting  for  Blunders  and  Frauds 
— The  Treasury  Building — Treasury  Notes  go  off  Nicely — Mr.  Crawford 
Under  a  Cloud — He  Conies  out  Gloriously — A  Little  Variety — A  Vision 
of  Much  Money — Fidgety  Times — Lighting  the  Mariner  on  His  Way — 
Old  Debts  Raked  Up— Signs  of  the  Times— Under  Lincoln— S.  P.  Chase 
as  Secretary — The  National  Currency  Act — Enormous  Increase  of  the 
National  Debt — Facts  and  Figures — The  Credit  of  the  Government  Sus- 
tained— President  Grant's  Rule — George  S.  Boutwell  made  Secretary — 
Great  Expectations — Mr.  Boutwell's  Labors,  Policy  and  Success — The 
Great  and  Growing  Prosperity  of  the  Nation. 

AFTER  the  Declaration  of   Independence,  the  first 
thing  that   the  Continental   Congress  did  was  to 
organize  a  Treasury  Department  for  the  new  government 
of  the  colonies. 

Michael  Hilligas  and  George  Clyiner  were  appointed 
Joint-Treasurers  of  the  United  Colonies.  They  were  to 
reside  in  Philadelphia,  and  to  receive  each  a  salary  of  five 
hundred  dollars  the  first  year,  and  to  give  bonds  in  the 
sum  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  The  second  year 
their  salary  was  raised  to  eight  hundred  dollars  each.  In 
a  short  time  George  Clymer  was  sent  to  Congress  as  a 
delegate  from  Pennsylvania,  and  Michael  Hilligas  re- 


THE  FIKST   TREASURERS   OP  THE  UNITED   STATES.    285 

mained  Treasurer  for  the  Colonies  to  the  close  of  the 
Revolution. 

In  six  months  after  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Clymer,  a 
committee  of  five  persons  was  appointed  to  assist  him  to 
superintend  the  small  Treasury.  Three  months  after,  an 
office  was  created  in  which  to  keep  the  Treasury  accounts. 
That  office  was  an  itinerant,  like  Congress,  following  it  to 
whatever  place  it  assembled.  Acts  were  passed  for  the 
establishment  of  a  National  Mint.  Alas  !  the  poor  Con- 
tinentals had  no  precious  ore  to  coin,  and  never  struck 
off  a  dollar  or  cent.  An  Auditor  General's  office  was 
organized,  and  John  Gibson  appointed,  with  an  annual 
salary  of  one  thousand  and  sixty-six  dollars  and  sixty- 
seven  cents. 

The  office  of  Comptroller  of  the  Treasury  was  created 
November  3, 1778,  and  Jonathan  Trumbull,  Jr.,  appointed, 
with  a  salary  of  four  thousand  dollars.  Money  was  pain- 
fully scarce.  That  made  it  the  more  imperative  that  this 
poor  little  empty  Treasury  should  have  some  supreme 
responsible  head  who,  by  the  adroit  magic  of  financial 
genius,  should  create  a  way  to  fill  it,  and  by  some  way 
provide  cash  for  the  unprovided-for  emergencies  which 
were  perpetually  imminent.  Thus  in  September,  1781, 
Congress  repealed  the  act  appointing  five  Commissioners, 
and  in  their  stead  appointed  a  single  supreme  "  Superin- 
tendent of  Finance." 

The  first  high  functionary  of  the  Treasury  was  Robert 
Morris,  of  Philadelphia.  He  had  already  distinguished 
himself  for  his  remarkable  financial  talents  as  a  merchant, 
and  for  his  devoted  patriotism.  Besides,  he  was  the  inti- 
mate friend  and  confidential  adviser  of  Washington.  He 
was  the  man  for  the  place  and  the  hour.  He  kept  the  credit 


286  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

of  the  struggling  Colonies  afloat  in  their  direst  moment. 
He  gave  from  his  private  fortune  without  stint,  and  added 
thereto  the  contributions  of  the  infant  nation.  When 
even  Washington  was  ready  to  give  up  in  despair,  because 
he  had  no  money  to  pay  his  troops,  and  the  troops  were 
ready  to  surrender  and  disband  from  sheer  misery  and 
suffering,  Robert  Morris  applied  to  "  the  purser  of  our 
allies,  the  French,"  and  saved  the  perishing  army  and  the 
struggling  republic.  He  proved  then,  what  has  been 
proved  so  conspicuously  since  during  a  still  greater  strug- 
gle, that  he  who  preserves  the  credit  of  his  country  in 
the  hour  of  its  peril  is  as  truly  a  patriot  as  he  who  dies 
for  her  sake  on  the  battle-field. 

Notwithstanding  his  benefactions,  at  the  close  of  the 
Revolution,  the  jealousy  among  foremost  men  was  so 
great,  it  was  found  to  be  impossible  to  give  to  one  man 
the  precedence  and  power  in  so  responsible  a  place.  The 
claims  of  the  three  contending  sections  were  acknowl- 
edged by  the  appointment  of  three  Commissioners :  one 
from  the  Eastern,  one  from  the  Middle,  and  one  from  the 
Southern  districts,  in  the  persons  of  Samuel  Osgood, 
Walter  Livingston  and  Arthur  Lee.  Robert  Morris  be- 
came a  member  of  the  Convention  which  framed  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  and  concluded  his  public 
services  to  his  country  as  United  States  Senator. 

At  the  end  of  three  years,  the  administration  of  the 
three  Commissioners  of  Finance  had  proved  so  inhar- 
monious and  unsuccessful  that  the  country  was  nearly 
bankrupt,  and  the  Union  of  States  ready  to  break  into 
ruins,  for  lack  of  money  to  pay  its  expenses  and  hold  it 
together. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  went  into  effect 


THE  NATIONAL  TREASURY.  287 

March  4,  1789,  and  Congress  went  into  its  first  session  in 
the  City  of  New  York.  Two  subjects  moved  it  to  its 
depths  at  once — the  impending  bankruptcy  of  the  coun- 
try, and  the  location  of  the  National  Capital.  The  pre- 
vention of  the  first  depended  upon  the  establishment  of 
the  latter.  The  Nation  was  impoverished  by  a  long  and 
harassing  war,  and  depressed  by  an  enormous  debt  which 
that  war  had  caused.  The  Nation  possessed  no  statistics 
indicating  the  resources  of  the  country,  and  there  was  no 
department  organized  through  which  fiscal  operations 
could  be  carried  on. 

The  strife  between  the  Northern  and  Southern  States, 
concerning  the  location  of  the  Capital,  made  harmonious 
financial  legislation  impossible  during  the  opening  session 
of  the  first  Congress.  But  the  committee  appointed  to 
organize  a  system  for  the  collection  of  the  revenue,  were 
equal  to  its  accomplishment.  After  four  months'  delibera- 
tion, July  31, 1789,  the  first  important  act  connected  with 
the  Treasury  Department  was  passed,  entitled  "  An  act  to 
regulate  the  collection  of  the  duties  imposed  by  law  on  the 
tonnage  of  ships  or  vessels,  and  on  goods,  wares  and  mer- 
chandise." September  2,  1789,  the  fundamental  act  es- 
tablishing the  Treasury  Department  was  enrolled  as  a 
whole,  and  passed. 

The  new  Department  consisted  of  a  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  a  Comptroller,  an  Auditor,  a  Treasurer,  a  Reg- 
istrar, and  an  assistant  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
It  was  decided  that  the  settlement  of  all  public  accounts 
should  be  in  the  Treasury  Department,  making  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury  the  head  of  the  Fiscal  Department 
of  the  Government,  placing  him,  however,  under  the  au- 
thority and  requirements  of  either  House  of  Congress. 


288  TEN   YEAES   IN   WASHINGTON. 

He  superintends  the  collection  and  disbursement  of  the 
revenue  of  the  United  States,  from  every  source  derived, 
except  that  of  the  Post  Office.  He  receives  the  returns 
of  the  revenue  in  general,  and  reports  to  Congress  all 
plans  of  finance,  and  the  final  results  of  his  own  official 
action,  and  that  of  his  subordinates. 

The  first  popular  candidate  for  the  position  of  chief  of 
the  Treasury  Department  was  Oliver  Wolcott,  a  son  of  a 
signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  his  own 
services  to  his  country,  both  under  the  Colonial  Govern- 
ment and  the  Union,  were  acknowledged  to  have  been 
important.  Meanwhile  Washington,  who  was  more  anx- 
ious to  find  out  how  he  was  to  get  money  to  pay  the  pub- 
lic debt,  than  to  find  a  man  to  pay  it,  invited  his  intimate 
and  tried  friend,  Robert  Morris,  to  give  him  the  benefit 
of  his  advice.  In  one  of  their  interviews,  the  great  chief 
groaned  out:  "What  is  to  be  done  with  this  heavy  na- 
tional debt?"  "There  is  but  one  man,"  said  the  astute 
financier,  "  who  can  help  you,  and  that  man  is  Alexander 
Hamilton.  I  am  glad  that  you  have  given  me  the  oppor- 
tunity to  disclose  the  extent  of  the  obligation  I  am  under 
to  him." 

In  ten  days  after  the  establishment  of  the  Treasury 
Department,  Alexander  Hamilton  was  appointed  its  chief. 
He  was  still  in  the  flower  of  his  youth,  but  had  already 
proved  himself,  not  only  in  practical  action,  but  in  the 
rarest  gifts  of  pure  intellect,  to  be  the  most  versatile  and 
remarkable  man  of  his  time.  Of  good  birth,  yet,  at  twelve 
years  of  age,  dependent  upon  his  own  exertions  for  support, 
he  bore,  at  that  tender  age,  the  entire  responsibility  of  a 
large  shipping  house.  He  seemed  endowed  with  the  qual- 
ity of  intellect  which  amounts  to  inspiration — unerring  in 


THE   FIEST   CHIEF   OF   THE   TREASURY.  289 

perception,  sure  of  success.  The  boy-manager  of  the  ship- 
ping house  earned  his  bread  in  the  day  time,  and  in  the 
night  wrote  articles  on  commercial  matters,  equally  re- 
markable for  their  comprehensiveness  and  practical  knowl- 
edge. A  native  of  St.  Croix,  West  Indies,  at  fourteen  he 
came  to  the  United  States ;  at  eighteen,  entered  Kings,  now 
Columbia  College,  where  he  at  once  attracted  attention 
by  his  brilliant  essays  on  political  subjects.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Revolution,  he  raised  and  took  command  of 
a  company  of  artillery.  The  same  transcendent  intuition 
which  made  him  supreme  as  a  financier,  made  him  re- 
markable as  a  soldier.  In  Washington's  first  interview 
with  him,  he  made  him  his  aide-de-camp,  and  through  the 
entire  Revolutionary  war,  he  was  called  "  the  right  arm  " 
of  the  Commander-in-chief. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  he  returned  to  New  York,  and 
stepped  at  once  to  the  very  front  of  his  profession.  A 
more  remarkable  and  interesting  group  of  men  probably 
never  discussed  and  decided  the  fate  of  a  nation,  than 
Washington,  Morris,  and  Hamilton.  Morris,  wise,  expe- 
rienced, analytic ;  Washington,  grave,  thoughtful,  far-see- 
ing, slow  to  invent,  but  ready  to  comprehend,  and  quick 
to  follow  the  counsel  which  his  judgment  approved; 
Hamilton,  young,  impetuous,  impassioned,  prophetic,  yet 
practical ;  in  comprehension  and  gifts  of  creation,  the  su- 
preme of  the  three.  Never  was  a  nation  more  blessed 
than  this,  in  the  united  quality  of  the  men  who  decided 
its  financial  destiny. 

The  first  official  act  of  Hamilton,  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  was  to  recommend  that  the  domestic  and  for- 
eign war  debt  be  paid,  dollar  for  dollar.  When  the  paper 
containing  this  recommendation  was  read  before  Con- 

19 


290  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

gress,  it  thought  that  the  new  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
had  gone  mad.  How  was  a  nation  of  less  than  four  mil- 
lions of  people  to  voluntarily  assume  a  debt  of  seventy- 
five  millions  of  dollars!  Hamilton  thought  that  this  ag- 
gregated debt,  created  for  the  support  of  the  national 
cause,  should  be  assumed  by  the  individual  States;  the 
outstanding  Continental  money  to  be  funded  at  the  rate 
of  one  dollar  in  specie  for  each  hundred  in  paper,  and 
the  whole  united  to  make  the  national  resources  available 
for  the  security  of  the  public  creditors. 

The  long  strife  in  Congress  over  this  great  fundamental 
financial  question  is  a  matter  of  history.  There  appeared 
to  be  no  national  resources  to  meet  such  a  demand. 
There  was  not  money  enough  in  the  Treasury  to  pay  cur- 
rent expenses,  to  say  nothing  of  paying  a  debt  of  tens  of 
millions.  Probably  no  body  of  legislators  in  the  world 
ever  represented  wisdom,  statesmanship,  pertinacity  of 
opinion  so  tried  in  the  fiery  crucible  of  war,  poverty  and 
suffering,  as  did  this  first  Congress ;  yet  it  was  left  to  the 
untried  minister  of  finance  of  thirty-three  to  save  the  na- 
tional credit  against  mighty  odds,  and  to  foresee  and  to 
foretell  the  future  resources  of  a  vast,  consolidated  people. 
This  inspiration  of  enthusiasm  and  faith,  combined  with 
practical  administrative  force,  and  a  broad  financial  policy, 
averted  the  horrors  of  national  bankruptcy,  preserved  the 
credit  of  the  government,  and  gave  to  the  sufferings  of 
Valley  Forge  and  the  surrender  at  Yorktown  then:  final 
fruition. 

The  young  financier,  bearing  his  burden  alone,  seemed 
to  hold  in  himself  the  guarantee  of  future  triumph.  He 
gave  to  the  most  despairing  a  security  of  success  when 
they  remembered  that,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  this  same 


SAVED   FEOM   BANKKUPTCY.  291 

young  prophet  and  patriot  was  the  "right,  hand"  of 
"Washington. 

The  long  struggle  ended  in  the  adoption  of  Hamilton's 
great  financial  scheme  of  funding  the  domestic  debt. 

"When  the  government  was  removed  to  Philadelphia, 
the  Treasury  was  established  in  a  plain  building  in  Arch 
street,  two  doors  east  from  Sixth.  Here  Morris,  Hamil- 
ton and  "Washington  were  united  in  the  closest  bonds  of 
personal  friendship.  Then  followed,  in  rapid  succession, 
those  great  state-papers  on  finance  from  Hamilton,  whose 
embodiment  into  laws  fixed  the  duties  on  all  foreign  pro- 
ductions, and  taxed  with  just  distinction  the  home  luxuries 
and  necessities  of  life.  From  'these  were  evolved  in 
gradual  development  the  entire  system  of  the  Treasury 
Department  of  the  United  States.  Time  has  proved  how 
perfect  were  the  plans  which  sprang  without  precedent 
from  the  bram  of  Alexander  Hamilton. 

First,  from  his  suggestions  came  the  act  which  established 
the  routine  by  which  customs  were  to  be  collected.  Then 
came  the  acts  for  the  levying  of  taxes  and  the  accumula- 
tion of  the  revenue.  Then  the  imposition  on  ships  and 
our  commercial  marine,  foreign  and  domestic.  Next,  a 
bank  was  established  for  the  depository  of  collected  funds, 
and  their  distribution  throughout  the  country.  Then  was 
needed  the  crown  of  the  grand  financial  structure— a 
legalized  institution  for  the  coinage  of  gold  and  silver. 
To  accomplish  this  great  design,  Hamilton  recommended 
for  the  adoption  of  Congress  the  establishment  of  a  mint 
for  the  purposes  of  national  coinage,  and  the  act  was 
passed  April  2,  1792,  fixing  the  establishment  at  the 
then  seat  of  government,  Philadelphia,  from  whence, 
through  later  legislation,  it  has  never  been  transferred. 


292  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

While  consuming  himself  for  his  country,  Hamilton  was 
harassed  by  the  abuse  of  personal  and  political  enemies, 
and  suffering  for  the  adequate  means  to  support  his 
family.  While  building  up  the  financial  system  which 
was  to  redeem  his  country,  the  state  of  his  own  finances 
may  be  judged  by  the  following  letter  from  him  to  a  per- 
sonal friend,  dated  September  30,  1791 : 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — If  you  can  conveniently  let  me  have  twenty 
dollars  for  a  few  days,  send  it  by  bearer.  A.  H." 

The  amount  of  personal  toil  he  performed  for  the  gov^ 
ernment  was  enormous.  Talleyrand,  who  was  at  this  time 
a  refugee  in  Philadelphia,  after  his  return  to  France,  spoke 
with  admiring  enthusiasm  of  the  young  American  patriot. 
In  speaking  of  his  experience  in  America,  he  once  said : 

"I  have  seen  in  that  country  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 
world — a  man,  who  has  made  the  future  of  the  Nation,  laboring 
all  night  to  support  his  family." 

Nobody  believes  that  any  servant  of  his  country  should 
be  compelled  to  this,  to-day,  yet  had  not  long-sufficed  sel- 
fishness made  them  insensible  to  it,  the  over-greedy  legis- 
lator of  to-day  might  learn  from  the  example  of  Alexander 
Hamilton  a  salutary  lesson. 

After  six  years  of  personal  service  in  the  Treasury, 
amid  personal  and  political  opposition,  greater  than  has 
ever  assailed  any  one  statesman;  after  seeing  his  financial 
system  a  part  of  the  governmental  policy  of  his  country, 
Hamilton  resigned  his  office,  and  resumed  the  practice  of 
law  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

Established  in  that  day  of  small  things,  in  human  judg- 
ment it  seems  impossible  that  the  brain  of  one  man  could 


SIX   YEARS    IN   THE   TREASURY.  293 

have  devised  a  monetary  system  that  would  anticipate  all 
the  varied,  conflicting  and  unexpected  demands  of  a 
country  %  as  large  and  swiftly  developed  as  ours.  Yet, 
with  slight  modifications,  the  system  of  Hamilton  has 
met  all  exigencies,  saved  the  national  credit,  and  assured 
the  national  prosperity  through  the  deepest  trials.  It 
paid  the  national  debt  of  the  Devolution,  and  of  1812, 
and  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion,  w\en  the  governmental 
expenses  of  a  single  day  were  mo.  3  than  the  national  in- 
come for  a  whole  year  in  Hamilton  3  time,  the  foresight 
and  genius  of  this  man  of  thirty-three  had  suggested  ways 
for  the  vast  accumulation  and  disbursement.  Personally, 
Hamilton  was  under  middle  size,  slight,  well-proportioned, 
erect  and  graceful.  His  complexion  was  white  and  pink, 
his  features  mobile,  his  expression  vivacious,  his  voice 
musical,  his  manner  cordial,  his  entire  appearance  attract- 
ive and  refined. 

Alexander  Hamilton  was  succeeded  by  Oliver  Wolcott, 
Jr.,  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  The  great  act  of  Mr. 
Wolcott' s  administration  was  the  revision  and  completion 
of  the  laws  relative  to  the  collection  of  the  revenue.  He 
carried  out,  through  his  administration,  the  great  funda- 
mental principles  of  national  finance  established  by  Ham- 
ilton, and  was  re-appointed  by  John  Adams. 

When,  in  1800,  the  Treasury  Department  performed  its 
six  days'  journey  from  Philadelphia  to  Washington,  it  went 
into  a  plain,  three-story  building,  facing  Fifteenth  street, 
erected  for  the  Treasury.  It  was  near  the  unfinished 
White  House,  and,  like  all  the  first  Federal  buildings,  plain 
and  small.  It  was  so  small,  when  first  taken  possession  of, 
that  it  did  not  even  afford  sufficient  room  for  the  clerical 
force,  then  fifty  in  number.  Its  cramped  space  made  it 


294  TEN    TEARS    IN    WASHINGTON. 

necessary  to  deposit  all  the  official  records  brought  from 
Philadelphia  in  a  house  known  as  Sears'  store,  and  the 
records,  which  would  now  be  invaluable,  were  all  consumed. 

The  first  official  act  of  the  Treasury  Department  of 
national  interest,  dated  at  the  national  capital,  directed 
that  the  Secretary  should  make  an  annual  report  to  Con- 
gress of  the  state  of  the  finances  of  the  nation,  contain- 
ing estimates  of  the  public  revenue  and  expenditure,  as 
well  as  plans  for  improving  and  increasing  the  revenues. 
Hamilton  had  done  this  voluntarily,  and  his  .example,  of 
a  Cabinet  officer  making  communications  with  Congress, 
was  now  made  imperative  by  the  action  of  law.  May  10, 
1800,  Samuel  Dexter,  another  signer  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence,  was  appointed  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury in  place  of  Oliver  Wolcott.  On  the  election  of  Jef- 
ferson, the  foe  of  the  Hamiltonian  financial  policy,  the 
Washingtonian  era  of  the  Federal  Government  ended, 
and  Mr.  Dexter  found  himself  out  of  harmony  with  the 
Government.  After  the  lapse  of  a  year,  President  Jef- 
ferson set  the  precedent  of  removal,  and,  January  26, 
1802,  appointed  Albert  Gallatin,  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury. 

Albert  Gallatin  was  born  in  Geneva,  Switzerland,  in 
1761.  After  receiving  a  liberal  education,  he  came  to 
this  country  at  the  age  of  eighteen.  He  became  a  tutor 
in  Harvard  College,  but  removing  to  Philadelphia,  then 
the  national  capital,  rose  so  high  in  public  esteem  that  in 
1790,  at  the  age  of  thirty,  he  was  elected  to  Congress,  and 
afterwards  to  the  Senate.  In  this  body,  his  reports  on 
matters  of  finance  attracted  universal  attention,  and,  as  a 
result,  he  was  made  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States.  President  Jefferson,  on  handing  him  his 


SEAKCHING   FOE   HAMILTON'S   BLUNDEKS.  295 

commission,  said  :  "  Mr.  Gallatin,  your  most  important 
duty  will  be  to  examine  the  accounts,  and  all  the  records 
of  your,  department,  in  order  to  discover  the  blunders  and 
frauds  of  Hamilton,  and  to  ascertain  what  changes  will 
be  required  in  the  system.  This  is  a  most  important 
duty,  and  will  require  all  your  industry  and  acuteness. 
To  do  it  thoroughly,  you  may  employ  whatever  extra  ser- 
vice you  require." 

Gallatin  was  an  ardent  partisan  of  the  President,  and 
declares,  himself,  that  he  undertook  his  task  of  exposing 
Hamilton,  and  bringing  his  lofty  head  low,  with  great  zest 
and  thoroughness.  But  his  hunt  for  "blunders"  and 
venality  merged  soon  into  .a  labor  of  love.  Upon  his  just 
and  comprehensive  mind,  Hamilton's  perfect  system,  day 
by  day,  revealed  itself.  By  the  time  he  had  mastered  its 
details,  and  measured  its  completeness,  he  was  filled  with 
admiration.  "  In  the  honest  enthusiasm  of  a  truly  great 
mind  he  went  to  Mr.  Jefferson  and  said :  '  Mr.  President, 
I  have,  as  you  directed,  made  a  thorough  examination  of 
the  books,  accounts  and  correspondence  of  my  depart- 
ment, from  its  commencement.  I  have  found,'  said  the 
conscientious  Secretary,  'the  most  perfect  system  ever 
formed.  Any  change  under  it  would  injure  it.'  Hamil- 
ton made  no  blunders,  committed  no  frauds;  he  did 
nothing  wrong." 

Albert  Gallatin  marked  his  administration  by  a  series 
of  reports  regarding  the  best  method  of  canceling  the  na- 
tional debt,  the  proper  policy  of  disposing  of  the  public 
lands,  and  the  legality  and  necessity  of  establishing  a 
national  bank.  Thus,  contrary  to  his  original  intention, 
he  associated  himself  with  Morris  and  Hamilton  as  one  of 
the  three  founders  of  the  financial  policy  of  the  nation. 


296  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

By  the  year  1804,  the  business  of  the  Treasury  had  so 
increased,  that  an  effort  was  made  toward  the  erection  of 
a  building,  to  become  the  especial  depository  of  the  records 
An  idea  may  be  given  of  the  demands  of  the  infant  govern- 
ment and  its  notions  of  economy,  in  the  facts  that  this 
vaunted  fire-proof  public  building  is  much  smaller  than 
an  unpretentious  private  dwelling  of  the  present  time, 
and  that  it  cost  less  than  the  sum  of  twelve  thousand 
dollars. 

Mr.  Madison,  on  his  accession  to  the  Presidency,  re- 
tained Mr.  Gallatin  at  the  head  of  the  Treasury. 

On  March  1,  1809,  an  act  of  Congress  directed  that  all 
warrants  drawn  on  the  Treasury  by  the  Secretaries  of  the 
different  executive  departments,  should  designate  the  ap- 
propriation to  which  they  were  charged. 

June  18,  1812,  war  was  declared,  and  Congress  was 
convened  in  special  session,  to  consider  the  necessities  of 
the  Treasury.  Out  of  the  legislation  which  followed, 
came  our  present  internal  revenue  laws.  Mr.  Gallatin,  af- 
ter having  held  his  office  longer  than  any  of  his  predeces- 
sors, resigned,  and  went  on  a  foreign  mission.  A  period 
of  extreme  money  depression  succeeded  his  resignation. 
August  24,  1814,  the  British  troops  entered  Washington, 
and,  with  the  Capitol  and  other  public  buildings,  burned 
the  Treasury.  The  business  of  the  Treasury,  for  a  con- 
siderable time  afterwards,  was  carried  on  in  what  was 
known  as  "the  Seven  Buildings,"  in  the  western  part  of 
the  city. 

George  N.  Campbell,  of  Tennessee,  Mr.  Gallatin's  suc- 
cessor, attempted  to  negotiate  a  loan  of  twenty-five  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  but  failed,  and  resigned  his  office.  The 
national  credit  was  at  its  lowest  ebb. 


THE  MAN  AND  THE  HOUR.  297 

When  the  need  of  a  great  man  is  absolute,  Providence 
usually  has  one  ready  for  the  emergency.  He  appeared 
at  this  crisis,  in  the  person  of  Alexander  J.  Dallas,  of 
Pennsylvania.  On  entering  upon  his  office,  as  head  of  the 
Treasury,  he  replied  to  the  request  of  Congress,  that  he 
should  suggest  ways  for  the  restoration  of  the  public 
credit,  in  one  of  the  most  powerful  documents  extant  in 
the  archives  of  the  Treasury.  Mr.  Dallas  so  inspired  the 
faith  of  the  capitalists  of  the  country,  that  the  national 
credit  was  at  once  restored.  "  The  Treasury  notes,  issued 
on  the  universal  opinion  that  they  would  be  a  drug  in  the 
market,  rose  to  a  premium." 

Mr.  Monroe  made  "W.  H.  Crawford,  of  Georgia,  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury.  Under  him,  the  routine  of  the 
Department  was  improved  by  the  appointment  of  a  sec- 
ond Comptroller  and  four  additional  Auditors.  Charges 
of  malfeasance  were  brought  against  him  toward  the  close 
of  his  term  of  office.  They  were  examined  by  a  com- 
mittee consisting  of  John  Randolph,  Edward  Livingston, 
and  Daniel  Webster,  who  pronounced  the  charges  false. 
President  John  Quincy  Adams  recalled  Richard  Rush,  of 
Pennsylvania,  then  Minister  to  England,  and  made  him 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

Under  Andrew  Jackson's  Presidency,  the  conservative 
management  of  the  Treasury  Department  changed  into 
"the  anti-bank  period."  His  administration  was  marked 
by  five  different  Secretaries,  and  a  prevailing  state  of 
excitement.  The  first  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  under 
Jackson,  was  Samuel  D.  Ingham,  of  Pennsylvania,  whose 
trust  ended  in  a  violent  breaking  up  of  the  Cabinet.  He 
was  succeeded  by  William  J.  Doane,  of  Pennsylvania,  who 
refused  to  remove  the  national  deposits  from  the  United 


298  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

States  Bank,  and  was  dethroned  by  Roger  B.  Taney,  of 
Maryland.  The  Senate  refused  to  confirm  his  appoint- 
ment, and  Levi  Woodbury,  of  New  Hampshire,  was  in- 
stalled in  the  office,  holding  it  to  the  end  of  Jackson's 
administration. 

April  1,  1833,  the  Treasury  Building  was  for  the  third 
time  destroyed  by  fire,  and  a  large  amount  of  valuable 
public  documents  destroyed.  Afterwards,  the  business  of 
the  Department  was  carried  on  in  a  row  of  brick  build- 
ings opposite  Willard's  Hotel.  At  this  time  the  "  Agent 
of  the  Treasury,"  was  changed  to  Solicitor  of  the  Treas- 
ury, and  a  sixth  Auditor  was  created.  Jackson's  admin< 
istration  closed  with  an  "apparent  plethora  of  monej 
among  the  people,  and  the  glorious  consummation  of  pay- 
ing off  the  national  debt." 

Mr.  Woodbury  continued  at  the  head  of  the  Treasury, 
under  President  Van  Buren.  It  was  his  fate  to  be  its 
director  "  in  the  times  of  unparalleled  plenty,  speculation 
and  extravagance,  and  two  years  afterwards,  to  witness  a 
pecuniary  revulsion  that  had  no  precedent  in  financial 
history."  In  1837,  financial  ruin  dismayed  the  Nation. 
Congress  was  convened  by  special  proclamation,  to  devise 
ways  and  means  to  relieve  the  people.  Specie  payments 
were  suspended,  and  all  business  involved  in  apparent 
ruin.  Binding  laws  were  passed,  divorcing  the  Govern- 
ment from  all  banking  institutions,  and  a  new  policy  was 
created  for  the  control  of  our  national  finances. 

Under  Presidents  Harrison  and  Tyler  there  were  five 
Secretaries  of  the  Treasury :  Thomas  Ewing,  of  Ohio ; 
Walter  Howard,  of  Pennsylvania;  John  C.  Spencer,  of 
New  York,  and  George  M.  Beble,  of  Kentucky.  Presi- 
dent Polk  made  Robert  J.  Walker  the  head  of  the  Treas- 


THE  APOSTLE  OF  FKEE-TRADE.          299 

ury.  He  was  known  as  "the  apostle  of  free  trade."  His 
administration  was  marked  by  the  introduction  of  the  pres- 
ent warehousing  system,  based  upon  English  precedent;  by 
his  reciprocity  system  between  Canada  and  the  United 
States  abolishing  all  customs  and  imports,  and  the  establish- 
ment of  an  "Interior  Department"  upon  the  old  over- 
grown Land  Office,  with  a  Cabinet  officer  to  administer  its 
affairs,  under  the  title  of  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  under  President  Taylor, 
was  William  M.  Meredith,  of  Pennsylvania;  who  was  suc- 
ceeded, under  President  Fillmore,  by  Thomas  Corwin,  of 
Ohio.  Secretary  Corwin  established  the  present  light- 
house department  and  wrote  the  instructions  regarding 
light-vessels,  beacons  and  buoys.  This  beneficent  legisla- 
tion gave  over  six  hundred  lights  to  protect  the  hitherto 
neglected  mariner  on  his  way. 

The  Chief  of  the  Treasury  under  President  Pierce,  was 
James  Guthrie,  of  Kentucky.  He  is  remembered  as  a 
strict  and  efficient  officer,  carrying  out  in  minutiae,  the 
duties  and  laws  of  the  department.  He  discovered  out- 
standing balances  against  the  Treasury,  which,  if  collected, 
would  more  than  pay  the  national  debt.  Of  this  sum 
he  collected  hundreds  of  millions  into  the  Treasury,  and 
raised  the  standard  of  efficiency  in  the  Treasury  service 
by  demanding  monthly,  instead  of  quarterly  reports, 
from  all  its  employes. 

Three  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury  served  under  James 
Buchanan — Howell  Cobb,  of  Georgia;  Philip  F.  Thomas, 
of  Maryland ;  and  John  A.  Dix,  of  New  York.  A  mone- 
tary crisis,  almost  as  severe  as  that  of  1837,  marked  this 
administration.  The  throes  of  Secession  shook  the  Union 
to  its  foundation,  and  the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury, 


300  TEN   YEAKS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

like  all  other  public  servants,  were  occupied  with  the 
"signs  of  the  times,"  the  swiftly  advancing  portents  of 
revolution,  more  than  with  the  mere  financial  duties  of 
the  public  Treasury. 

Abraham  Lincoln  began  his  troubled  administration  by 
the  appointment  of  Salmon  P.  Chase,  of  Ohio,  as  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury.  Never  was  man  asked  to  help  steer 
the  ship  of  state  through  more  overwhelming  breakers. 
With  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  imminent,  the  national 
debt  had  increased  to  three  times  the  amount  it  was  at 
the  close  of  the  previous  administration.  The  number 
of  clerks  which,  in  1861,  was  three  hundred  and  eighty- 
three,  in  1864  was  two  thousand.  Such  a  demand  was 
without  precedent,  and  arose  from  the  immense  labor  of 
examining  accounts,  and  of  preparing  and  supervising 
the  national  currency  and  securities. 

The  first  important  measure  of  Mr.  Chase's  administra- 
tion was  the  "Internal  Revenue  Act,"  which,  in  four 
years,  increased  the  income  of  the  Government  from 
forty-one  millions  to  three  hundred  and  nine  millions. 
Next  came  the  great  "'National  Currency  Act,"  which, 
though  severely  criticised,  and  probably  not  free  from  de- 
fects, nevertheless  established  a  paper  currency  of  equal 
value  in  every  part  of  the  Union,  and  was,  at  least,  in 
keeping  with  the  principles  of  our  Government,  and  freer 
from  chances  of  corruption  and  abuse  than  any  other 
system  yet  adopted.  It  met  the  awful  demand  of  the 
hour,  and  offered  the  guarantee  of  redemption,  rather 
than  of  loss  and  ruin. 

In  a  single  month,  the  tax  upon  the  income  of  the 
Treasury  became  stupendous.  In  one  day,  it  paid  out  for 
quartermasters'  stores  alone,  forty-six  millions  of  dollars — 


YAST  INCREASE  OF  THE  NATIONAL  DEBT.     301 

more  than  were  needed  to  support  the  entire  National 
Government  during  the  first  year  of  Washington's  ad- 
ministration. In  four  years,  the  public  debt,  from  ninety 
millions,  had  grown  to  be  two  thousand  six  hundred  mil- 
lions— yet  under  this  mighty  demand,  with  two  millions 
of  its  sons  withdrawn  from  productive  labor,  the  exports 
of  the  country  were  double  what  they  had  ever  been  be- 
fore, and  the  credit  of  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  day  by  day  increased. 

When  Mr.  Chase  was  appointed  Chief  Justice  by  Mr. 
Lincoln,  his  high  seat  in  the  Treasury  was  taken  by  Hon. 
William  Pitt  Fessenden,  whose  brief  career  as  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  was  marked  by  a  single  State  paper  of 
great  ability.  He  was  succeeded  by  Hugh  McCulloch,  of 
Indiana,  who  dispensed  the  duties  of  his  office  creditably 
till  the  close  of  Johnson's  administration. 

President  Grant,  upon  his  accession  to  the  Presidency, 
chose  George  S.  Boutwell,  of  Massachusetts,  to  be  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury.  Mr.  Boutwell  had  already  served 
as  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue,  and  now  on  him 
devolved  the  huge  task  of  reducing  the  high  impost  and 
revenue  tax  created  by  the  war  debt,  and  borne  as  a 
mighty  burden  by  the  people.  He  had  to  lighten  the 
load  on  the  people's  shoulders,  and  yet  keep  the  national 
tax  high  enough  to  meet  the  interest,  and  reduce  the 
amount  of  the  national  debt — in  fine,  he  was  expected  to 
relieve  the  Nation,  and  to  pay  the  national  debt  at  the 
same  time.  A  more  conflicting  demand  never  rested  on 
a  Financial  Minister.  How  ably  he  met  it,  the  "  monthly 
statement"  of  the  perpetual  ebb  of  the  war  debt,  with 
the  constant  legislation  to  reduce  all  revenue  taxation  to 
the  luxuries  of  life,  were  ample  proof. 


302  TEN   TEAKS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

Before  the  election  of  Mr.  Boutwell,  as  United  States 
Senator  from  Massachusetts,  to  succeed  Vice  President 
Henry  Wilson,  the  President  appointed  Judge  Richardson, 
Acting  Assistant  Secretary,  to  be  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury. Judge  Richardson  stepped  from  comparative  ob- 
scurity, and  an  opposite  sphere  of  labor,  to  his  present 
high  official  position.  There  are  many  who  challenge 
his  claim  to  it,  and  his  fitness  for  it.  Time  may  prove 
one,  and  disprove  the  other.  As  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury, his  official  record  is  yet  to  be  made — until  his  admin- 
istration has  been  marked  by  an  act  of  national  import- 
ance, it  is  too  early  to  pronounce  a  verdict. 

In  the  statistics  of  the  Treasury  Department,  we  read 
the  marvellous  financial  history  of  our  country.  In  them 
we  trace  the  material  progress  of  the  Nation  from  its  be- 
ginning. In  the  accounts  current  business  of  the  country, 
we  learn  that  in  the  years  1793,  '94,  '95,  '96,  the  Nation 
imported  productions  valued  at  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
four  millions  of  dollars.  In  the  years  1866,  '67,  '68,  '69, 
the  United  States  exported  values  to  the  amount  of  nine- 
teen hundred  millions.  The  value  between  these  sums 
marks  the  growth  of  population,  territory,  and  material 
resources  in  the  space  of  seventy  years — surely,  a  narrow 
span  in  the  life  of  a  nation ! 


CHAPTER  XXX. 
INSIDE  THE  TREASURY— THE   HISTORY  OF  A  DOLLAR. 

A  Washington  Tradition— «'  Old  Hickory"  Erects  his  Cane— "  Put  the 
Building  Right  Here  "—Treasury  Corner-Stone  Laid— Robert  Mills'  Dis- 
colored Colonnade — Where  "  Privileged  Mortals"  Work — A  Very  Costly 
Building— Rapid  Extension  of  Business — Splendid  Situation  of  the 
Building— The  Workers  Within— The  Government  Takes  a  Holiday— 
The  Business  of  Three  Thousand  People — The  Mysteries  of  the  Treasury 
— Inside  the  Rooms — Mary  Harris's  Revenge — The  "Drones"  in  the 
Hive— Making  Love  in  Office  Hours— Flirtations  in  Public— A  Vast  Ref- 
uge for  the  Unfortunate — Two  Classes  of  Employes — A  List  of  Miserable 
Sinners — A  Pitiful  Ancient  Dame — A  Proitgt  of  President  Lincoln — 
Women's  Work  in  the  Treasury — The  Bureau  of  Printing  and  Engrav- 
ing— A  very  Hot  Precinct — Rendering  a  Strict  Account — Not  a  Cent 
Missing — The  "Chief's"  Report — Dealing  in  Big  Figures — The  Story 
of  a  Paper  Dollar — In  the  Upper  Floor — The  Busy  Workers — Night 
Work— Where  the  Paper  is  Made— The  "Localized  Blue  Fibre"—  The 
Obstacle  to  the  Counterfeiter — The  Automatic  Register — Keeping 
Watch — The  Counters  and  Examiners — Supplying  the  Bank  Note  Com- 
panies— ' '  The  American ''  and  ' '  The  National " — An  Armed  Escort — 
No  Incomplete  Notes  Possible — Varieties  of  Printing — The  Contract 
with  Adams'  Express — Printing  the  Notes  and  Currency — Internal  Rev- 
enue Stamps — Thirty  Young  Ladies  Count  the  Money — Manufacturing 
the  Plates — The  Engraving  Division — "  The  Finest  Engravers  in  the 
Country  "—The  Likeness  of  Somebody — Transferring  a  Portrait — "Men 
of  Many  Minds  " — The  Division  of  Labor — Delicate  Operations — A 
Pressure  of  Five  or  Six  Tons — The  Plate  Complete — "Re-entering"  a 
Plate — An  "Impression" — How  Old  Plates  are  Used  up — A  Close  In- 
spection— Defying  Imitation — The  Geometric  Lathe — Tracing  "  Lines  of 
Beauty  "  for  More  than  Forty  Years. 

IT  is  one  of  the  traditions  of  Washington  that  Andrew 
Jackson  decided  the  exact  site  of  the  present  Treasury 
Building. 


304  TEN   TEAKS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

After  the  third  destruction  by  fire,  in  1833,  of  the 
early  Treasury  Buildings,  a  great  strife  came  up  concern- 
ing the  location  of  the  new  Treasury.  Worn  out  with 
the  claims  of  "rival  factions,"  it  is  said  that  President 
Jackson  walked  out  a  few  rods  from  the  White  House  one 
morning,  and  thrusting  his  cane  into  the  ground,  ex- 
claimed :  "  Put  the  building  right  here !  "  This  ended  all 
disputes,  and  the  end  of  the  "  old  hero's "  cane  marked 
the  north-east  corner  of  the  present  site  of  the  Treasury 
of  the  United  States. 

Though  nearly  approached  by  the  Patent  Office,  the 
Treasury  Building,  in  architectural  splendor,  ranks  next 
to  the  Capitol.  Its  corner-stone  was  laid  in  1834  by  Levi 
Woodbury,  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  The  original 
building  was  designed  by  Robert  C.  Mills,  whose  long  and 
discolored  colonnade  on  Fifteenth  street  is  still  visible. 
It  was  built  of  the  freestone  brought  from  near  Acquia 
Creek,  Virginia,  which  has  touched  with  premature  din- 
giness  too  many  of  the  Federal  buildings  of  the  Capital. 
But  in  the  Treasury  its  long  line  of  smut  is  lost  in  the 
marble  splendor  of  the  extensions.  The  extension  of  the 
building  was  authorized  in  1835,  and  built  from  the  de- 
signs of  Thomas  W.  Walter.  It  embodies  the  most  per- 
fect Grecian  architecture,  adapted  to  modern  uses.  It 
surrounds  a  hollow  square,  on  which  its  inner  offices  look 
out  on  green  grass  and  cooling  fountain  through  the 
summer  heats.  Instead  of  cooped-up  cells,  the  lower 
stories  of  the  Treasury  are  filled  with  airy  apartments,  in 
which  privileged  mortals  serve  their  country  and  earn 
their  bread  and  butter.  The  new  Treasury  is  built  of 
gleaming  granite  brought  from  Dix  Island,  on  the  coast 
of  Maine. 


THE   TREASURY  BUILDING.  305 

The  walls  of  the  extension  are  composed  of  pilasters, 
resting  on  a  base  which  rises  some  twelve  feet  above  the 
ground  on  the  southern  or  lower  side.  Between  the  pi- 
lasters are  antce  or  belt-courses,  nobly  moulded ;  the  facings 
of  the  doors  and  windows  bear  mouldings  in  harmony. 
The  southern,  western  and  northern  fronts  present  mag- 
nificent porticoes.  Its  lofty  pillars  are  of  the  Ionic  order, 
and  the  entire  building  is  at  last  surmounted  by  a  massive 
balustrade.  The  south  wjug  was  completed  and  occupied 
in  1860.  The  west  wing  was  completed  in  1863 — the 
north  in  1867 — the  whole  at  a  cost  of  $6,750,000.  The 
exterior  is  four  hundred  and  sixty-four  feet  by  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty-four  feet. 

The  Treasury  was  begun  and  consummated  on  a  truly 
magnificent  scale,  and  with  the  expectation  that  it  would 
meet  every  demand  of  its  own  branch  of  the  public  ser- 
vice for  at  least  a  century.  Like  every  one  of  the  public 
buildings,  it  is  already  too  small  to  accommodate  the  over- 
crowded bureaus  of  its  own  departments,  several  of  which, 
for  want  of  room  in  the  Treasury  Building,  already  oc- 
cupy other  houses  in  different  parts  of  the  city ;  and  yet 
there  is  not  space  left  for  those  who  remain.  Before  the 
year  1900,  another  Treasury  Building  as  magnificent  as  the 
one  now  our  pride,  will  be  indispensable  to  the  ever-increas- 
ing demand  of  the  departments  of  the  financial  service. 

The  Treasury  borrowed  its  face  from  the  Parthenon ; 
and,  as  it  turns  it  toward  the  Potomac  this  May  morning, 
it  is  one  of  the  fairest  sites  in  Washington.  From  the 
southern  portico  we  look  across  sloping  tree-shaded  mead- 
ows. Beyond,  we  see  the  shimmering  river,  with  its  gir- 
dle of  green,  and  above,  "  the  flush  and  frontage  of  the 
hills."  When  flowers,  and  trees  and  soft  lights  shall  have 

20 


306  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

taken  the  place  of  all  this  glare — how  beautiful  it  will  be 
to  the  eyes  of  generations  to  come.  But  even  now  the 
bright  grass,  flower-parterres  and  lapsing  fountains  are 
pleasant  to  behold,  while  the  southern  front  of  the  Treasury 
is  an  object  upon  which  the  eyes  must  always  rest  with  a 
sense  of  satisfaction. 

The  Capitol  lords  it  over  the  east,  but  the  Treasury 
reigns  over  the  west  end.  To  be  sure,  it  stands  upon  the 
poorest  make-believe  of  an  Acropolis,  but  coming  along 
Pennsylvania  avenue  we  look  up  to  its  noble  facade  and 
fair  Ionic  columns  gleaming  before  us,  as  a  compensation 
for  the  poverty  of  beauty  in  the  streets  which  we  travel, 
The  western  windows  overlook  the  grounds  of  the  presi- 
dential mansion,  now  gay  with  flowers  and  dazzling  with 
sunshine,  their  trees  decked  in  the  vivid  foliage  of  a 
southern  June-time. 

How  many  pairs  of  weary  human  eyes  look  up  from  then 
tasks  within  these  walls,  and,  without  knowing  it,  thank 
God  for  this  fair  outlook.  The  breeze-blown  grass,  the 
fragrant  winds,  the  lavish  light  of  these  open  windows — 
to  dusty  lips  and  tired  eyes  which  take  them  in — are  God's 
own  benedictions.  Hundreds  of  such  look  up  from  their 
desks.  Past  the  great  fountain,  tossing  its  diamonds  be- 
low, past  the  sunny  knolls  and  mimic  mounds  of  newly- 
cut  grass,  above  the  bloom-burdened  trees  and  all  the  ten- 
der verdure  of  early  spring  and  summer,  they  see  the 
windows  of  the  presidential  reception-room,  whose  doors, 
through  all  the  winter  months,  are  besieged  by  an  army 
of  office  and  favor  seekers,  but  which  are  shut  and  silent 
and  deserted  now,  while  "  the  Government "  drives  among 
the  hills  or  loiters  by  the  sea. 

But  I  began  to  talk  about  the  Treasury,  and  no  matter 


INSIDE   THE   TREASURY.  307 

how  I  wander  for  ever  so  many  pages,  I  must  come  back 
to  it  again. 

It  is  easier  to  comprehend  the  outside  than  the  inside 
of  it.  One  might  as  well  try  to  snatch  up  a  city  and 
portray  it  in  a  sitting,  as  even .  to  outline  the  Treasury 
of  the  United  States  in  a  single  chapter. 

It  holds  a  metropolis  within  its  walls.  It  affords  daily 
employment  to  over  three  thousand  persons,  and  thou- 
sands more  daily  throng  its  halls.  Just  a  glimpse  into 
this  vast  human  hive  makes  us  long  for  a  Dickens  to 
embody  the  romance  and  reveal  the  mysteries  of  the 
Treasury.  The  story  of  the  Circumlocution  Office  and 
the  Court  of  Chancery  pale  before  the  revelations  and  un- 
dreamed of  human  experiences  which  it  holds.  Before  you, 
behind  you,  and  on  either  side  stretch  out  the  great  marble 
paved  halls.  Out  of  these  open  numberless  rooms,  whose 
shut  doors  stare  blankly,  or  whose  half-open  blinds  wink 
and  blink  at  each  other  through  the  gleaming  cross  lights. 

Over  these  doors  you  read  significant  inscriptions,  such 
as  First  Comptroller's  Office,  First  Auditor's  Office,  etc. 
You  ascend  the  great  stairs  and  find  other  halls,  such  as 
those  below,  and  like  them  lined  on  each  side  by  doors. 
Over  these  you  read,  "Loan  Branch,"  "Redemption 
Branch,"  "Office  of  the  Register,"  "Office  of  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,"  etc.  Many  of  the  open  doors  reveal  to 
you  large  airy  apartments  filled  with  busy  men  and  women. 
Many  more  show  you  narrow,  one-windowed  apartments, 
each  containing  a  desk,  or  desks,  with  its  scribe,  or  scribes. 

Here  we  see  men  who  have  grown  gray,  weak-limbed 
and  wizened  in  those  rooms  beside  those  desks.  They  have 
grown  to  be  as  automatic  as  their  pens,  and  as  narrow  as 
then*  rooms.  Here  also  are  thousands  of  men  in  their 


308  TEN  YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

prime  and  in  their  youth  representing  every  phase  of 
character.  In  this  hall,  just  by  this  door,  Mary  Harris 
watched  for  the  man  who  had  robbed  and  ruined  her — 
and  just  here  she  shot  him.  Poor  thing !  With  her 
blighted  face  she  is  a  maniac,  now  in  the  Asylum  across 
the  river.  These  halls  are  as  thronged  as.  Broadway,  and 
their  denizens  are  as  cosmopolitan.  People  of  all  nations 
and  costumes  come  and  go  along  their  vast  vistas. 

There  are  drones  in  this  hive.  These  are  office  hours, 
yet  here  and  there  may  be  seen  a  young  man  and  maiden 
whose  in-door  costume  marks  them  as  employes  of  the 
Treasury,  loitering  in  the  shadow  of  pillar  or  alcove,  lin- 
gering by  stair  or  doorway,  saying  very  pleasant  things  to 
each  other,  doubtless,  after  the  manner  of  young  maidens 
and  men.  Flirting  or  making  love  in  the  flare  of  the 
public  must  always  be  a  desecration  of  the  heart's  best 
sanctities.  Beside,  Sassafras  and  Sacharissa,  you  ought  to 
be  at  work.  It  is  precisely  such  as  you  who  have  brought 
discredit  even  upon  the  faithful  and  unfortunate,  and  some- 
times rebuke  upon  the  whole  Treasury  Department.  For, 
as  a  rule,  the  Treasury,  like  all  the  other  departments  of 
Washington,  is  a  vast  refuge  for  the  unfortunate  and  the 
unsuccessful.  The  only  exceptions  are  found  in  two  clas- 
ses, viz.:  those  who  use  departmental  life  as  the  lad- 
der by  which  to  climb  to  a  higher  round  of  life  and  ser- 
vice, and  those  who  seek  it  without  half  fulfilling  its  duties, 
because  too  inefficient  to  fill  any  other  place  in  the  world 
well.  Unpractical  authors,  sore-throated,  pulpitless  cler- 
gymen, briefless  lawyers,  broken  down  merchants,  poor 
widows,  orphaned  daughters,  and  occasionally  an  adven- 
turer, masculine  and  feminine,  of  doubtful  or  bad  degree, 
— all  are  found  within  the  Treasury. 


ABKAHAM  LINCOLN'S  Protege.  309 

I  remember  an  aged  woman,  with  bent  back  and  long, 
wasted  fingers,  sitting  behind  the  door  in  the  Redemption 
Bureau.  Her  dim  eyes  peered  through  her  spectacles  and 
her  poor  fingers  trembled,  as  she  tried  to  count  the  dirty, 
ragged  currency.  "Alas!  sad  eyes,"  I  thought,  "by  this 
time  rest  from  toil  should  have  come  to  you."  "It  is  pit- 
iful," I  said,  to  the  kind  gentleman  who  reigned  over  the 
division,  "that  one  so  old  should  have  to  come  through 
rain  and  snow  to  fulfil  a  daily  task.  Is  she  not  too  old  to 
do  her  duty  well !  " 

"No,"  was  the  answer,  "she  does  it  very  well.  But  if 
not,  she  would  never  be  removed.  She  is  a  protege  of 
President  Lincoln." 

But  any  one  who  fancies  that  even  woman's  work  in 
the  Treasury  Department  is  a  sinecure,  should  climb  to 
the  Bureau  of  Printing  and  Engraving.  You  may  climb, 
but  you  cannot  enter  unless  you  hold  a  written  "sesame" 
from  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury ;  so  sacred  and  guarded 
is  this  very  hot  precinct  in  which  Uncle  Samuel  creates 
his  "Almighty  Dollar."  The  business  of  this  Bureau  is  to 
engrave,  print,  and  perfect  for  delivery  to  the  United 
States  Treasurer,  all  United  States  notes,  Treasury  checks, 
gold  notes,  drafts,  fractional  currency  notes,  all  bonds 
and  revenue  stamps  issued  by  the  Government  of  the 
United  States. 

At  the  close  of  each  day,  every  fraction  which  has 
passed  through  the  division  for  the  last  tw^ve  hours 
must  be  accounted  for.  If  a  cent  is  missing,  all  1;  ?  work- 
ers of  the  Bureau  are  detained  until  the  missing  fraction  is 
certainly  found  and  safely  deposited  in  the  vault  OA  the 
Treasury.  The  vast  monetary  responsibility  resting  ^n 
the  Chief  of  this  Bureau  may  be  judged  from  a  statemenv 


310  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

made,  in  his  own  report,  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June 
30,  1872. 

"  There  has  been  finished  and  delivered  to  the  proper  officers 
of  the  Government  by  this  Bureau,  during  the  fiscal  years 
ending  June  30,  1870,  1871, 1872,  in  notes,  bonds  and  securities, 
$2,050,141,  and  331,273,955  stamps,  and  not  a  note,  nor  a  sheet, 
nor  a  portion  of  a  sheet  or  note  has  been  lost  to  the  Government." 

But  I  hold  the  "open  sesame; "  so  come  with  me  and  be- 
gin the  story  of  a  paper  dollar.  Walking  through  the  long, 
cool  corridors  and  the  airy  saloons  of  the  lower  Treasury, 
who  would  dream  that  afar  up,  close  under  its  clinging 
roof,  ceaseless  fires  burn,  engines  play,  eager  shuttles  fly, 
and  patient  hands  ply  through  all  the  nights  and  days  to 
make  the  people's  dollar!  Here  in  these  low,  close  rooms, 
these  crowded  halls,  whose  roofs  press  down  so  low  that 
even  a  child,  in  many  places,  could  not  stand  erect  be- 
neath it,  patient  men  and  women, — weary,  gray,  and  old, 
— and  youth,  with  its  first  tints  yet  unbleached  by  the 
burning  atmosphere  in  which  it  toils, — all  are  at  work  mak- 
ing the  paper  dollar. 

Sometimes  in  the  dark  night,  down  the  granite  colon- 
nades, athwart  the  great  trees  dimly  waving  in  mid-air, 
across  the  lapsing  fountains,  stream  long  gleams  of  light 
shooting  from  the  tiny  loop-hole  windows  high  up  under 
the  Treasury  roof.  They  dart  from  the  Printing  Bureau  of 
the  Natioi/^  While  the  Nation  sleeps,  its  servants,  through 
the  long;,  still  hours,  go  on  making  the  people's  money ! 

Firsif,  the  paper !  It  is  all  manufactured  at "  Glen  Mills," 
near  Philadelphia,  by  the  Messrs.  Wilcox,  who  own  the 
mills,  and  are  the  patentees  of  the  "localized  blue  fibre," 
made  of  jute,  which  runs  through  the  right-hand  end  of 


THE  STORY  OF  A  PAPER  DOLLAR.         311 

the  fractional  currency  and  United  States  notes,  and  on 
the  back  of  the  bonds,  etc.  This  fiber  is  the  obstacle  to 
the  counterfeiter,  and  can  only  be  overcome  by  oiling  or 
soiling  the  spurious  paper,  so  that  its  absence  cannot  be 
discovered.  The  paper  is  chemically  prepared,  and  the 
application  of  an  acid  will  change  the  tint  to  one  color, 
and  an  alkali,  to  another.  Thus  any  attempt  to  alter  the 
filling-in  or  denomination  of  the  stamped  check,  is  de- 
feated. 

A  Government  superintendent  resides  at  Glen's  Falls, 
who,  with  a  corps  of  assistants,  receives  the  paper  from 
the  contractors,  counts,  examines,  holds  it  carefully  guard- 
ed night  and  day,  until  delivered  to  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States.  To  each  paper-making  machine  is  attached 
an  automatic  register,  by  which  the  mill-owners  account 
to  the  Government  for  every  square  inch  and  sheet  re- 
corded by  this  register,  the  register  being  locked,  and  the 
key  held  securely  in  the  pocket  of  a  Government  officer, 
who  watches  the  work.  During  its  manufacture  and 
storage  at  the  mills,  this  paper  is  guarded,  by  day  and  night, 
by  a  regularly  organized  "watch."  The  Government  Su- 
perintendent has  a  corps  of  counters  and  examiners  un- 
der his  direction,  who  examine  and  count  the  paper,  as 
received  from  the  makers,  before  it  is  packed  away  for 
shipment.  The  account  is  sent  to  the  Department,  and 
paid  each  day  by  the  Secretary. 

The  paper  is  supplied  the  Bank  Note  Companies  only 
upon  requisition  from  the  Bureau  at  Washington.  Mr. 
Bern  is,  the  Superintendent,  makes  a  report  to  the  Prints 
ing  Bureau,  also  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  of  all 
the  paper  delivered  to  him.  The  first  journey  made  by 
this  governmental  infant,  is  to  the  Bank  Note  Companies 


312  TEN   TEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

— two  of  them,  one  in  New  York,  the  other  in  Philadel- 
phia— the  American  and  the  National — that  there  may 
not  be  any  dangerous  monopoly  of  priceless  charms.  It 
is  borne  to  the  depot  by  an  armed  escort;  and  conveyed 
on  the  cars  by  Adams'  Express.  The  New  York  Com- 
pany, printing  tints,  must  turn  over  to  the  Company  print- 
ing backs,  notes  equivalent  to  the  paper,  and  the  second 
Company  must  similarly  account  to  the  Government  for 
every  incomplete  note  received — thus  neither  can  possess 
itself  wholly  of  this  beloved  child.  One  Company  prints 
the  tints  of  one  denomination,  and  the  back  of  the  other, 
no  Company  executing  on  the  same  note  both  printings. 

The  national  bank  notes,  hitherto  engraved  and  printed 
entirely  in  New  York,  coming  only  to  the  Government 
Printing  Bureau  for  numbering  and  sealing,  hereafter  will 
be  exclusively  engraved  and  printed  in  the  Treasury. 
The  jute-fibred  paper  will  also  be  used  in  their  making,  as 
it  is  in  the  United  States  notes.  The  face  of  the  Treas- 
ury notes  is  printed  in  black  and  green,  the  back  in  green. 
The  National  Bank  Note  face  dares  to  be  printed  in  black, 
and  its  back  in  black  and  green. 

This  tinted  and  outlined  paper  is  conveyed  to  the  Treas- 
ury by  Adams'  Express,  who  have  the  contract  for  carry- 
ing all  the  Government  moneys  and  securities. 

When  it  reaches  the  Treasury,  the  work  yet  to  be 
done  by  the  Printing  and  Engraving  Bureau,  before  the 
paper  is  complete  as  Government  money,  is  to  print  the 
face  upon  the  United  States  notes,  and  hereafter,  on  the 
National  Bank  notes,  to  plate-seal,  to  number,  trim,  and 
cut  them  into  single  notes;  to  trim,  surface-seal,  and  cut 
into  single  notes  the  ten,  fifteen,  and  twenty-five,  frac- 
tional currency  notes;  to  print  the  face  of,  trim,  surface- 


HOW   UNCLE   SAM'S   MONEY   IS   MADE.  313 

seal,  and  separate  the  fifty  cent  notes;  trim,  surface-seal, 
and  number  the  "funded  loan  bonds;"  to  trim,  number, 
and  surface-seal,  the  national  bank  notes ;  and  to  print  the 
faces  upon  all  the  tints  for  internal  revenue-stamps,  al- 
ready printed  in  New  York.  Besides  all  this  work,  the 
following  are  entirely  engraved  and  printed  in  the  Bu- 
reau of  the  Treasury:  All  strip-tobacco  and  snuff-stamps, 
stub  and  sheet  snuff -stamps,  domestic  and  customs  cigar- 
stamps,  compound  liquor-stamps,  crew  lists  ships'  regis- 
ters, brewers'  permits,  all  the  new  special  tax-paid  stamps, 
(sixteen  in  number,)  all  miscellaneous  bonds,  gold  notes, 
checks,  drafts,  etc. 

When  this  precious  paper,  with  its  black  and  green  lines 
and  tints,  fresh  from  the  Bank  Note  Companies,  arrives 
at  the  Treasury,  it  is  placed  into  the  hands  of  thirty  young 
ladies  for  counting,  one  lady  counting  it  twice,  then  past- 
ing it  to  another,  for  verification. 

The  next  act  in  the  process  of  making  a  dollar,  is  the 
manufacture  of  the  plates  used  in  printing.  They  are 
made  in  the  engraving  division  of  the  Bureau,  under  the 
supervision  of  Mr.  Casilear,  a  gentleman  distinguished  in 
his  profession,  who  presides  over  a  corps  of  the  finest  en  • 
gravers  in  the  country.  Their  work  upon  the  plate  of 
the  United  States  note,  is  the  engraving  of  its  different 
parts.  First,  the  face  which  it  is  to  bear.  This  is  always 
noticeably  a  perfect  likeness  of  the  person  whom  it  rep- 
resents. A  daguerreotype  or  photograph  is  used.  On  the 
metallic  plate  of  the  daguerreotype  the  features  are  drawn 
lightly,  the  artist  following  accurately  the  lines  of  the 
portrait.  If  a  photograph  is  used,  gelatine  is  laid  over 
it,  and  the  picture  is  traced.  From  this  outline  on  the 
plate,  an  impression  is  printed.  This  impression,  by  a 


314  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

chemical  process,  is  transferred  to  a  steel  plate  covered 
with  wax.  The  outlines  are  then  traced  on  steel,  the 
wax  removed,  and  the  face,  in  outline,  is  then  on  the 
steel.  The  shading  is  then  completed. 

So  many  phases  of  consummate  skill  are  necessary  to 
the  completion  of  a  single  dollar  note,  that  "many  men 
of  many  minds"  are  required  to  perfect  a  single  plate. 
One  has  a  genius  for  landscape,  another  for  portraits,  an- 
other for  animal  figures.  The  portrait  is  given  to  one, 
the  lettering  to  another,  the  ornamental  work  to  a  third, 
and  on  and  on.  These  fragments  of  the  perfect  picture 
to  be,  are  executed  upon  separate  bits  of  soft  steel. 
When  the  lines  on  them  are  completed,  these  different 
bits  of  soft  steel  are  put  into  an  iron  box,  case-hardened 
and  annealed  in  a  crucible  of  intense  heat,  then  sud- 
denly cooled  by  dipping  them  in  oil,  which  utterly  hard- 
ens the  soft  steel.  Rolls  of  soft  steel  are  then  prepared. 
By  the  application  of  a  powerful  press,  the  various  pic- 
tures and  lines,  that  the  artists  have  engraved,  are  taken 
up  by  the  soft  steel  rollers  from  the  hard  steel  plate. 
The  intaglio  work  appears  on  the  roll,  just  as  it  after- 
wards appears  on  the  note. 

Now,  the  note-face  is  in  fragments  on  the  surface  ot 
the  separate  rolls.  Next,  the  rolls  are  hardened,  and 
placed  in  a  transfer  press  over  a  flat  plate  of  soft  steel. 
Upon  this  plate,  the  operator  of  the  press,  by  applying 
the  lever,  can,  if  necessary,  impose  a  pressure  equal  to 
five  or  six  tons.  This  pressure  transfers  the  fragmentary 
picture  to  the  plate.  Then  its  counterpart  picture  is  set 
in  exact  juxtaposition.  The  operator  uses  his  steady 
hand,  and  skilled  eyes,  to  set  like  a  mosaic,  each  fragment 
of  the  complete  design.  Then  moving  the  roller  softly, 


THE   DIFFICULTIES    OF   A   COUNTERFEITER.  315 

to  and  fro,  to  equalize  the  pressure  on  every  part  of  the 
picture,  he  continues  to  do  so  till  the  plate  is  hardened. 
He  then  passes  a  soft  roll  over  it,  and  the  entire  note-face 
is  taken  up.  In  turn,  this  roll  is  hardened,  and  the  note- 
face  transferred  from  it  to  a  soft  steel  plate.  This  final 
plate,  hardened  and  polished,  is  the  plate  from  which  the 
note  is  at  last  printed. 

After  this  plate  has  been  used  for  thirty  thousand  im- 
pressions, its  fading  lines  are  restored  by  "re-entering" 
the  plate  with  a  roll.  It  is  then  used  for  thirty  thousand 
impressions  more.  When  finally  "used  up,"  these  plates 
are  destroyed  in  the  presence  of  a  mixed  committee  of 
Treasury  officers  and  members  of  Congress. 

Look  closely  at  the  United  States  notes,  the  fractional 
currency  bonds,  and  the  most  valuable  revenue  stamps, 
and  you  will  see  many  lines  involved  and  intricate,  run- 
ning to  and  fro  in  the  most  marvellous  manner.  These 
lines  defy  imitation.  They  are  the  best  tantalizer  and  de- 
tective of  the  most  accurate  counterfeiter.  The  most  ab- 
solute imitation,  made  by  hand,  can  be  instantly  perceived 
under  a  glass.  These  involuting  lines  are  the  work  of 
the  geometric  lathe,  an  instrument  whose  complicated 
wheels  can  be  set  to  work  out  any  combination  of  curved 
lines  which  the  human  mind  can  possibly  conceive.  The 
counterfeiter,  with  the  same  lathe,  would  be  powerless  to 
produce  the  same  complications — "he  would  grow  gray 
in  endless  and  useless  experiments,  and  even  with  a  rec- 
ord of  the  combination,  he  could  not  so  exactly  re-pro- 
duce it,  that  an  expert  could  not  detect  the  imposition." 

The  geometric  lathe  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United 
States,  is  worked  by  Mr.  Tichenor,  who  has  been  a  skilled 
artist  in  such  machinery  for  more  than  thirty  years. 


316  TEN   YEAES   IN  WASHINGTON. 

There  are  no  more  interesting  objects  in  the  Treasury, 
than  the  line  of  clear-eyed  men  who  sit  bent  over  their 
tasks,  their  subtle  lines  tracing  the  exquisite  vignettes 
which  have  made  the  engravings  of  the  United  States 
Treasury  so  famous.  Here  is  one  who  has  been  tracing 
these  lines  of  beauty  for  more  than  forty  years :  his  hair 
is  white,  but  his  keen,  strong  sight — drawing  harmony, 
poetry,  nature,  and  life,  out  of  barest  outline — remains 
undinamed. 


CHAPTER   XXXI. 

THE  WORKERS  IN  THE  TREASURY— HOW  THE  MONEY  IS 
MADE. 

The  Dollar  with  the  Counters— In  the  Tubs— Getting  a  Wetting— Servants 
of  Necessity — That  Scorching  Roof— Brown  Paper  Bonnets — Earning 
their  Daily  Dollar— The  Work  Progressing— In  the  Press— A  State  of 
Dampness — Squaring  Accounts — Calling  for  a  Thousand  Sheets — Ac- 
counting for  Them — Superintending  the  Work — The  Face-printing  Divis- 
ion—The United  States  "  Sealer  "—One  Hundred  and  Thirty-five  Presses 
at  Work — Printing  Cigar-Stamps  and  Gold-Notes  of  Many  Colors — 
Presses  "Flying" — Quick  with  Dangerous  Motion — With  a  Begrimed 
Face— The  "  Help-mate"  of  his  Toil— The  Fiery  Little  Brazier— What 
the  Man  Does — The  Woman's  Work — The  Automatic  Register — An  Ob- 
server Without  a  Soul — Our  Damp  Little  Dollar — The  Drying  Room  — 
The  First  Wrinkles — Looking  Wizened  and  Old — Rejuvenating  a  Dollar 
— Underneath  Two  Hundred  and  Forty  Tons — Smooth  and  Polished — • 
Precious  to  the  Touch— A  Virgin  Dollar— The  "Sealer"  at  Work 
— Mutilated  Paper — What  the  Women  are  Paid — The  Surface- Sealing  Di- 
vision— Seal  Printing — The  Aristocratic  Green  Seal — The  Numbering 
Division — Attended  Solely  by  Women  and  Girls — Critically  Examined — 
A  Lady  Charged  with  Errors — Securing  Adequate  Care — Dividing  the 
Dollars — To  Start  Alone — Ladies  Serene  at  Work — Snowy  Aprons  and 
Delicate  Ribbons— Needling  the  Sheet— A  Blade  that  Does  Not  Fail- 
Sorting  the  Notes — The  Manipulation  of  the  Ladies — The  Dollar  "  in  its 
Little  Bed  "—Dollar  on  Dollar—"  Awaiting  the  Final  Call  "—The  Mandate 
of  Uncle  Sam — Fourteen  Divisions — Making  up  Accounts — Tracing  a 
Note— A  Perfect  System  of  "  Checks  "—The  Safeguards— The  Chief 
of  the  Bureau. 

OMY  !  that  dollar  !  I  left  far  back,  flying  through  the 
fair  hands  (more  or  less)  of  thirty  lovely  "  counters," 
to  find  it -here,  sopped  in  the  tubs  of  the  "wetters." 
Long  trough-like  tubs  run  down  the  middle  of  an  attic- 


318  "     TEN    YEARS    IN    WASHINGTON. 

room,  at  whose  sides  the  roof  slopes  so  low,  a  child  could 
not  stand  under  it.  Even  at  its  apex,  a  slender  girl  beside 
her  tub  can  scarcely  stand  upright.  At  either  side  of  the 
long  troughs  are  rowed  maids  and  matrons,  some  fair  and 
young,  some  old  and  worn,  all  bearing  unmistakably  the 
mark  of  the  servant  of  necessity.  So  near  and  hot  to  the 
brain  is  the  scorching  roof,  each  woman  wears  upon  her 
head  a  covering  of  brown  paper,  for  protection.  Who 
will  say  these  lowly  servants  of  the  Government  do  not 
earn  the  scanty  pittance  of  their  daily  dollar  ? 

In  the  "  wetting  division  "  is  received,  counted,  and 
"  wet  down,"  all  the  paper  that  is  to  be  plate  printed. 
Here,  in  different  stages  of  progression,  we  see  blank  sheets 
wetted  for  first  printing,  and  sheets  in  preparation  for 
second,  third,  and  even  fourth  printing.  The  counters  of 
this  division  put  every  twenty  sheets  in  the  hands  of  the 
wetters,  who  place  them  between  cloths  and  submerge 
them  in  the  liquid  of  the  tubs  before  them.  Every 
one  thousand  sheets,  thus  wetted,  are  placed  between 
wooden  boards,  under  the  pressure  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty  pounds.  In  these  cerements  they  remain  for  three 
or  four  hours,  when  they  are  taken  out,  the  top  sheets 
made  to  change  places  with  the  middle  ones,  that  uni- 
form dampness  may  be  secured.  The  sheets  are  then  laid 
again  between  the  weights,  to  remain  till  the  next  morn- 
ing, when  they  are  taken  out,  piled  up  under  damp  cloths 
to  wait  the  call  of  the  plate-printers.  All  this  systematic 
saturation  is  indispensable  to  the  securing  of  a  fine  print 
impression. 

A  distinct  account  is  kept  with  each  printer,  which 
must  be  "  all  right "  before  he  goes  home.  For  example, 
a  plate-printer  calls  at  the  wetting  division  for  a  thousand 


PRINTING  "THE  PEOPLE'S  DOLLAR."  319 

sheets.  These  are  given  him,  and  charged  at  once  on  the 
books  of  the  division.  As  fast  as  he  prints  his  work,  he 
sends  it  to  the  office  of  his  printing  division,  and  is  credited 
with  all  the  work  that  he  has  accomplished.  At  the  close 
of  the  day,  if  he  has  any  sheets  left  imprinted,  he  returns 
them  to  the  wetting  division,  and  is  credited  with  them 
as  sheets  returned.  His  work  performed  and  work  re- 
turned must  then  be  ascertained,  and  his  account  strictly 
balanced,  before  he  can  leave  the  Treasury. 

The  wetting  division  is  superintended  by  Mr.  J.  H. 
Lamb,  who,  with  Mr.  Ward  Morgan,  the  head  of  the 
face-printing  division,  Mr.  Edgar  of  the  examining  divis- 
ion, and  Mr.  Evans,  the  United  States  Sealer,  have  all 
been  chosen  to  preside  over  their  distinct  divisions  on 
account  of  their  practical  experience  in  plate-printing, 
gained  by  personal  toil  at  the  press  itself. 

Now  we  come  to  the  Face-printing  Room  of  the  trouble- 
some little  dollar.  One  hundred  and  thirty-five  presses 
are  flying  in  this  room  and  another ;  the  latter  printing 
the  seals  and  tints  of  cigar-stamps,  gold-notes,  etc.,  in 
hues  as  varied  as  the  leaves  in  autumn.  Standing  in 
this  door,  looking  down  this  long  apartment,  we  see 
seventy-five  presses  flying  at  once.  The  air  is  quick 
with  dangerous  motion.  Great  shuttle-like  fans  flap 
above  our  heads.  At  every  angle,  presses,  eager  and  ac- 
curate, seem  ready  to  strike  you,  as  well  as  the  dollar, 
with  unerring  skill  and  execution.  Beside  each  one 
stands  a  man,  with  face  begrimed.  Beside  each  man 
stands  a  woman,  the  helpmate  of  his  toil.  Between 
each  flames  a  fiery  little  brazier,  holding  the  gleaming 
plate  to  keen  heat.  The  face  printer  runs  his  roller,  wet 
with  ink  over  the  face  of  the  absorbing  plate.  A  cloth 


320  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

in  his  hand  comes  swiftly  after,  leaving  only  the  fine 
lines  of  the  plate  traced  with  ink.  The  ready  woman 
lays  the  moist  paper  on  the  warm  ink-lined  plate.  The 
printer  touches  the  wheel,  turns  it,  the  sheet  flies  up. 
Lo  !  at  last,  the  beautiful  new  dollar !  The  girl  takes  it 
instantly,  lays  it,  face  down,  on  top  of  its  new-born  breth- 
ren. Already  the  roller  is  passing  again  over  the  pol- 
ished plate,  and  her  hands  are  outstretched  to  lay 
another  sheet  upon  the  waiting  plate.  In  less  than  a 
minute  another  dollar  is  made. 

An  automatic  register  is  connected  with  each  press; 
thus  every  sheet,  note,  or  stamp  printed,  is  recorded,  and 
serves  as  a  check  on  the  counter  and  printer.  The  regis- 
ter is  locked,  and  the  key  kept  with  the  keeper  of  the 
registers,  appointed  by  the  Secretary. 

After  leaving  the  press  and  being  heaped  a  few  mo- 
ments by  its  side,  the  next  thing  that  happens  to  our 
damp  little  dollar,  is  to  be  dried.  The  moist  sheets, 
spread  upon  racks,  are  carried  to  the  drying  room  until 
the  next  morning.  The  drying  process  leaves  the  sheets 
with  a  rough,  wrinkled  surface.  The  little  dollar  comes 
forth  from  its  first  bed,  looking  wizened  and  old,  and  is 
immediately  sent  to  the  "pressing  division"  to  be  rejuve- 
nated. Here  every  thousand  sheets,  for  six  minutes,  are 
subjected  to  a  slow,  steady  pressure  of  two  hundred  and 
forty  tons,  from  which  every  sheet  issues  smooth,  soft, 
polished,  and  precious  to  the  touch,  as  every  soul  will  say 
who  has  been  the  first  possessor  of  a  virgin  dollar. 

The  pressing  division  is  superintended  by  Mr.  Rallon, 
the  "  Nestor  "  of  the  Bureau.  Mr.  Edgar,  superintendent 
of  the  examining  division,  assisted  by  thirty  young  ladies, 
takes  care  of  the  face-printed  work.  Mr.  Evans,  the 


THE   UNITED   STATES   SEALER.  321 

United  States  Sealer,  examines  all  the  seal  and  tint 
prints.  All  mutilated,  are  carried  to  the  counting  divis- 
ion before  being  sent  to  the  Secretary  for  destruction. 
Each  printer  is  allowed  a  small  percentage  for  unavoid- 
able mutilation.  If  at  the  end  of  the  month  his  number 
of  mutilated  exceeds  this  allowance,  he  is  obliged  to  pay 
for  the  excess.  Each  printer  works  by  "  the  piece,"  and 
pays  the  woman  who  helps  him — the  price  being  regulated 
by  the  Bureau — one  dollar  per  day. 

After  coming  forth  from  the  hydraulic  presses,  softly 
polished,  every  exquisite  line  and  figure  embossed  in 
keen  relief,  the  United  States  note  sheets  pass  to  the 
surface-sealing  division.  The  process  of  seal-printing  is 
the  same  as  the  first,  and  each  sheet  has  to  go  through 
the  same  process  the  second  time.  Under  the  superin- 
tendence of  Mr.  Gray,  six  "Gordon  "  and  six  "  Campbell" 
presses  print  the  beautiful  pink  surface-seals.  Here  the 
small  currencies,  the  national  bank  notes,  the  new  special 
tax-paid  stamps,  receive  the  internal  revenue  seal.  The 
"  funded  loan  bond  "  alone  is  stamped  with  the  aristocratic 
green  seal. 

Having  been  sealed,  the  dollar  must  now  be  numbered, 
and  for  that  purpose  passes  into  the  numbering  division, 
where  it  receives  the  last  touch  of  printing  from  machines 
attended  solely  by  women  and  girls.  This  machine  works 
on  the  same  principle  as  the  famous  paging  machine. 
The  numbers  are  set  on  the  surface  of  a  small  wheel,  and 
with  every  stroke  of  the  stamp  the  next  consecutive 
number  flies  up  into  its  place  ;  with  the  same  stroke,  a 
small  roller,  taking  the  red  ink  from  the  plate  and  feed- 
ing it  to  the  type.  These  machines  are  regulated  to 
change  the  numbers  for  a  whole  series.  Two  red  num- 

21 


322  TEN   TEARS 'IN   WASHINGTON. 

bers  on  each  bill  are  put  on  by  these  machines.  Intense 
care  is  necessary  in  this  work,  to  prevent  mistakes,  and 
each  bill  is  critically  examined  to  ascertain  its  correct- 
ness. If  mistakes  are  discovered  at  once,  they  can  be 
rectified ;  but  the  red  ink  soon  hardens  and  becomes 
indelible.  If  the  mistake  is  discovered  too  late  to  correct 
it,  it  is  charged  to  the  lady  who  made  it.  This  has  been 
found  to  be  the  only  way  to  secure  adequate  care  on  the 
part  of  the  numberers. 

The  last  line  of  printing  is  received  in  the  red  number 
set  at  top  and  bottom ;  all  that  remains  for  the  dollar,  before 
starting  on  its  journey  into  the  wide,  wide  world,  is  to  be 
divided  from  its  brethren,  that  it  may  start  alone.  Thus 
the  United  States  note  sheet  is  carried  into  the  separa- 
ting and  trimming  room.  This  used  to  be  done  by  scis- 
sors, and  gave  to  women,  I  believe,  their  first  work  in 
the  Treasury.  This  room  is  one  of  the  largest  and  busi- 
est in  the  Bureau,  and  second  only  to  the  printing-room 
in  interest.  The  wheels,  straps  and  pulleys  reaching  to 
the  ceiling,  with  which  its  air  is  perforated,  give  it,  at 
first  glance,  a  complicated  atmosphere,  till  the  -eyes  rest 
upon  the  many  ladies  sitting  serenely  at  work  below. 

This  work  being  all  clean,  and  some  of  it  dainty  in  its 
character,  the  result  is  visible  in  the  tasteful  attire  of  the 
workers,  whose  snowy  aprons  and  delicate  ribbons  are  in 
direct  contrast  to  the  worn  and  soiled  raiment  of  the 
weary  sisterhood  of  the  tubs,  and  the  inky  presses  of. 
the  wetting  and  printing  divisions.  Part  of  the  woman's 
work  of  this  room  is  to  needle  the  sheets,  which  must  be 
done  so  accurately,  that  when  hundreds  together  are  laid 
in  the  cutting  machine,  the  glittering  blade  will  strike 
through  a  single  line,  not  wavering  a  hair's  width 


WOMEN'S  WORK  IN  THE  TREASURY.  323 

through  two  hundred  sheets.  The  room  is  thronged 
with  those  little  guillotines,  whose  gleaming  blades  are  in 
constant  execution.  Each  Treasury  note  sheet  which 
passes  under  them  is  cut  into  four  notes  at  once,  each 
sliding  down,  correctly  sorted,  into  its  own  little  box  wait- 
ing below.  Excepting  the  fractional  currency  cutters, 
all  these  exquisite  machines  are  worked  by  ladies,  who 
manipulate  them  with  unerring  accuracy. 

In  this  Bureau  but  one  more  thing  remains  for  our  dol- 
lar, that  it  should  be  laid  "  in  its  little  bed,"  before  it 
goes  down  to  the  Treasurer.  This  is  speedily  done,  and 
its  bed  is  a  very  dainty  affair, — a  pretty  box,  made  in  an 
adjoining  room  by  pretty  hands ;  and  pretty  hands  lay 
our  dollar  away;  indeed  dollar  on  dollar,  so  many  in  a 
box,  which  shuts  them  in — fair,  tempting,  tantalizing — out 
of  sight,  to  await  the  call  of  the  Treasurer  and  the  mandate 
of  Uncle  Samuel. 

There  are  fourteen  divisions  in  the  Printing  and  En- 
graving Bureau.  Yet  it  is  its  unyielding  rule  that  not  a 
sheet  of  paper  can  pass  from  the  hands  of  one  superinten- 
dent to  his  operatives  without  a  verified  count  and  a  writ- 
ten receipt,  which  is  made  a  permanent  record  in  a  book 
kept  for  the  purpose.  At  the  close  of  each  day's  labor, 
the  operatives  in  every  room  report  to  its  superintendent, 
before  they  leave  the  building,  how  much  paper  they 
have  received,  how  much  finished,  returning  the  balance. 
The  superintendent  of  each  room  makes  a  report,  on  a 
printed  form,  at  the  end  of  each  day,  showing  the  amount 
of  paper  received,  delivered  up  to  the  morning,  through 
the  day,  the  amount  delivered  that  day,  the  amount  on 
hand.  This  report  is  delivered  to  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau 
of  Engraving  and  Printing,  and  a  duplicate  sent  to  the 


324  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

Secretary.  From  these  reports  the  Secretary  compiles 
his  report  of  the  work  of  the  entire  Bureau,  which  must 
correspond  with  the  report  made  by  the  Chief  of  the 
Bureau. 

When  any  given  issue  of  notes  or  bonds  is  completed, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  holds  a  report,  which  is  a 
complete  history  of  the  issue  through  all  its  stages  of 
growth,  from  beginning  to  end.  The  test  of  the  utter 
thoroughness  of  this  system,  is  that  every  note  printed 
in  this  department  from  its  beginning,  if  returned  to 
superintendents,  could  be  traced,  through  every  stage, 
back  to  blank  paper ;  the  books  showing  the  date  of  its 
arrival,  and  by  whom  it  was  printed,  sealed,  numbered, 
separated,  and  delivered  to  the  Treasurer  of  the  United 
States. 

The  system  of  checks  used  by  the  Bureau  of  Printing 
and  Engraving  is  so  perfect  that  it  is  almost  impossible 
for  the  Government  to  lose  a  fraction  from  it.  The  paper 
is  registered  at  the  mills — every  sheet  accounted  for. 
Every  sheet  manufactured  is  accounted  for  every  day. 
To  perfect  a  fraudulent  issue,  there  would  have  to  be  a 
universal  collusion  between  all  the  superintendents  of  all 
the  divisions  and  all  the  operatives,  and  between  the 
superintendents  and  operatives.  Several  high  officers 
of  the  Printing  Bureau  are  appointed  by  the  Secretary, 
independent  of  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Printing  and 
Engraving,  which,  is  another  security  against  danger. 
These  are  but  a  part  of  the  safeguards  within  which  the 
United  States  Treasury  holds  its  dollars. 

Mr.  McCartee,  the  present  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of 
Printing  and  Engraving  of  the  United  States  Treasury, 
is  so  utterly  the  master  of  the  momentous  machinery 


A  CHIEF'S  RESPONSIBILITIES.  325 

which  he  "  runs,"  that  you  cannot  ask  him  a  question 
concerning  the  labor  in  detail  of  his  eleven  hundred  em- 
ployes, that  he  cannot  answer  more  perfectly  than  the 
person  doing  the  work. 

Beside  his  own  practical  knowledge  of  the  business  com- 
mitted to  his  charge  in  minutiae,  he  employs  only  men 
trained  from  their  youth  up  in  the  art  of  plate  engrav- 
ing, to  perform  the  skilled  labor,  or  to  superintend  the 
divisions  of  this  most  important  Governmental  Bureau. 
The  responsibilities  and  mental  anxieties  of  its  chief  are 
so  inexorable,  that  he  must  be  at  his  post  by  a  little  past 
seven  in  the  morning,  and  remain  till  five  P.  M.  He  must 
return  about  seven  P.  M.,  and  remain  until  ten  at  night. 
Often  the  wheels  and  presses,  and  patient  hands  of  this  de- 
partment, go  from  day  to  day  to  be  able  to  meet  the  en- 
ormous demand  of  the  country  upon  its  resources.  No 
added  comment  is  necessary  to  prove  how  honorable  is 
its  lowliest  toil,  or  how  indispensable  to  its  chief  are  the 
highest  mental  and  moral  qualities. 


CHAPTER    XXXII. 

THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  A  DOLLAR. 

The  Division  of  Issues— Ready  for  the  World— Starting  Right— Forty  Busy 
Maids  and  Matrons — Counting  Out  the  Money — Human  Machines — A 
Lady  Counting  for  a  Dozen  Years— Fifty  Thousand  Notes  in  a  Day — 
Counting  Four  Thousand  Notes  in  Twenty  Minutes — Travelling  on  Be- 
half of  Uncle  Sam— In  Need  of  a  Looking- Over— "  Detailed  "  for  the 
Work— What  has  Passed  Through  Some  Fingers— Big  Figures— Packing 
Away  the  Dollars— The  Cash  Division— The  Marble  Cash-Room— The 
Great  Iron  Vault— Where  Uncle  Sam  Keeps  His  Money— Some  Nice 
Little  Packages — Taking  it  Coolly — One  Hundred  Millions  of  Dollars  in 
Hand — Some  Little  White  Bags — The  Gold  Taken  from  the  Banks  of 
Richmond— Anxious  to  Get  Their  Money  Back— A  Little  Difficulty— Not 
yet "  Charged  "—A  Distinction  without  a  Difference— Charming  Variety— 
A  Nice  Little  Hoard— Five  Hundred  Millions  Stored  Away — The  Secret 
of  the  Locks — The  Hydraulic  Elevator — Sending  the  Money  off— How 
the  Money  is  Transported — Begrimed,  Demoralized,  and  Despoiled — 
Where  is  our  Pretty  Dollar? — The  Redemption  Division — Counting  Muti- 
lated Currency — Women  at  Work — Sorting  Old  Greenbacks — Three 
Hundred  Counterfeit  Dollars  Daily— Detecting  Bad  Notes—"  Short," 
"Over,"  and  "Counterfeit" — Difficulty  of  Counterfeiting  Fresh  Notes 
— Vast  Amounts  Sent  for  Redemption — Thirty-one  Million  Dollars  in 
One  Year— The  Assistant  Treasurer  at  New  York— The  Cancelling 
Room — The  Counter's  Report — The  Bundle  in  a  Box — Awkward  Respon- 
sibility— "  Punching  "  Old  Dollars — They  are  Chopped  in  Two — Paying 
for  Mistakes — The  Funeral  of  the  Dollar — The  Burning,  Fiery  Furnace 
— "  The  Burning  Committee  "—What  They  Burn  Every  Other  Day— 
The  End  of  the  Dollar. 

"I7A OLLO WING  our  dollar,  we  come  this  soft  summer 
-L  morning  to  the  Division  of  Issues.  It  is  in  the  Treas- 
urer's Bureau,  and  here,  crisp,  new  and  ready  for  its  ad- 
ventures, our  dollar  has  arrived.  The  fate  that  may 


COUNTING  FIFTY   THOUSAND   NOTES   A   DAT.        327 

await  it  out  in  the  world,  the  wildest  fancy  cannot  fore- 
tell ;  but  before  it  starts  on  its  long  pilgrimage,  it  must 
be  again  manipulated  by  fair  fingers,  to  see  that  it  starts 
«  all  right." 

We  enter  a  long,  light,  airy  room;  and  here  at  a  table 
sit  forty  or  more  maids  and  matrons,  counting  the  new 
notes.  Pretty  maidens !  Pretty  dollars !  Our  dollar 
among  the  rest.  Crinkling,  fluttering,  flying,  the  dollars ! 
Serene,  silent,  swift,  the  maidens!  That  anything  can 
be  counted  so  rapidly  and  yet  so  accurately,  defies  belief. 
It  is  the  marvel  of  this  counting,  that  it  is  as  infallible  as 
it  is  flying.  The  fingers  of  forty  women  play  the  part 
of  perfected  machinery,  the  numbered  notes  passing 
through  them  with  the  celerity  and  regularity  of  auto- 
matic action. 

This  perfection  of  mathematical  movement  is  acquired 
only  by  long  practice  and  by  one  order  of  intellect. 
There  are  persons  who  can  never  acquire  this  unerring 
accuracy  of  mind  and  motion  combined.  There  is  a  lady 
sitting  here  who  has  been  in  this  division  since  it  was 
organized,  in  1862,  who  can,  upon  demand,  count  fifty 
thousand  notes  in  one  day.  As  the  department  hours  of 
work  are  from  nine  to  three  o'clock,  and  half  an  hour  is 
taken  at  noon  for  lunch,  these  fifty  thousand  notes  must 
all  be  counted  in  the  space  of  five  and  a  half  hours. 
This  is  at  a  rate  of  nine  thousand  and  ninety  notes  each 
hour,  one  hundred  and  fifty  each  minute  and  two  and  a 
half  each  second.  The  same  lady  will  count  four  thou- 
sand legal  tender  notes  in  twenty  minutes.  These  lady 
counters,  with  a  number  of  their  sister  peers  from  the 
Redemption  Division,  perform  numerous  journeys  for 
Uncle  Samuel  whenever  the  Treasury  Offices  in  other 


328  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

cities  need  a  "  looking  over."  At  such  times  they  are 
"  detailed  "  to  go  and  count  the  Government  funds  there. 

Through  the  fingers  of  these  ladies  has  passed  every 
note — legal  tender  or  fractional — which  has  been  issued 
by  the  United  States  since  the  beginning  of  the  war  of 
the  rebellion.  Every  note,  ever  touched  or  seen,  with  all 
the  gold-notes  and  the  millions  of  imperfect  bonds  and 
notes  never  put  in  circulation — every  one  has  passed 
through  these  same  deft  fingers.  The  total  value  of  this 
vast  amount,  up  to  July,  1872,  was  about  two  thousand 
nine  hundred  million  dollars,  more  than  two  hundred  and 
twenty- three  millions  of  which  was  in  postal  and  fractional 
currency. 

As  soon  as  the  new  money  is  counted,  it  is  again  put 
away — the  legal  tenders  in  strong  paper  wrappers,  the 
fractional  currency  in  paper  boxes.  All  are  sealed,  put 
on  a  hand-cart,  and  rolled  off  to  the  vaults  of  the  cash 
division,  whither  we  still,  you  and  I,  pursue  our  little 
dollar. 

Passing  through  the  cashier's  office  and  the  superb 
Marble  Cash-room  (to  which  we  will  soon  return),  at  the 
opposite  end  we  reach  one  almost  exclusively  occupied 
by  the  iron  vault  of  the  United  States  Treasury.  The 
double  iron  doors  swing  slowly  back,  and  we  stand  in  the 
money  vault  of  the  nation.  It  looks  light  and  airy  as  a 
china-closet.  The  sealed  packages,  lining  the  shelves  to 
the  ceiling,  are  full  of  money.  I  hold  a  small  package  in 
my  hand  of  crisp,  stamped  paper,  tied  with  common 
twine,  and  "  take  it  coolly  "  when  the  keeper  of  these 
coffers  tells  me  that  the  string  ties  in  one  hundred  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  It  doesn't  seem  much ! 

On  the  shelf  of  a  cosy  closet  are  piled   some  little 


WHERE   THE    MONEY   IS    STORED    AWAY.  329 

white  bags  which  have  done  a  deal  of  travelling.  They 
hold  the  gold  captured  from  Jefferson  Davis's  fleeing 
trains,  taken  from  the  banks  of  Richmond.  You  know 
the  banks  of  Richmond  have  been  very  anxious  to  get 
their  money  back,  and  have  sent  numerous  messengers 
after  it.  A  small  obstacle,  in  the  shape  of  a  fact,  sepa- 
rates them  from  the  object  of  their  desire.  This  gold 
was  rifled  from  the  mint  in  New  Orleans,  and  before  it 
came  to  the  banks  of  Richmond  belonged  to  the  Treasury 
of  the  United  States. 

In  this  vault  is  packed  away  all  the  money  not  needed 
for  circulation.  A  large  portion  of  the  money  which 
lines  these  shelves  has  never  been  charged  to  the  Treas- 
urer on  the  books  of  the  department,  therefore,  techni- 
cally, is  not  yet  money,  although  all  ready  for  use. 
Every  kind  of  note  which  the  ingenuity  of  Uncle  Sam 
and  his  servants  ever  devised,  is  here  packed  and  guarded. 
The  compartments  of  the  safe  not  affording  sufficient 
space,  the  floor  is  piled — and  as  carelessly,  apparently,  as 
if  with  potato  or  apple  bags ;  but  not  in  fact.  The  value 
of  every  bag  and  package  is  known,  and  not  one  cent 
could  be  taken  without  being  swiftly  discovered  and 
pursued.  Piles  on  piles  of  little  bags  and  packages! 
this  is  all,  and  yet  they  hold  five  hundred  millions  of 
dollars.  Little  bags  and  packages  these  are,  all,  and 
yet  for  them  men  toil,  struggle,  sin — sell  their  bodies 
and  their  souls! 

On  each  of  the  doors  of  this  iron  vault  are  two  burg- 
lar-proof locks,  of  the  most  complicated  construction, 
each  on  a  combination  different  from  the  rest.  But  two 
or  three  persons  know  these  combinations,  and  no  per- 
son knows  the  combination  to  the  locks  on  both  doors. 


330  TEN   YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

Thus  it  is  impossible  that  they  should  be  fraudulently 
opened,  save  by  collusion  between  two  persons  who  know 
the  combination.  This  is  but  one  of  the  safeguards  which 
the  Government  sets  about  its  treasures. 

A  few  paces  from  the  door  of  this  vault  is  the  elevator 
communicating  with  the  room  of  the  agent  of  Adams' 
Express  Company,  on  the  basement  floor  below.  The 
motive  power  of  this  elevator  is  Potomac- water,  from  the 
water-mains.  Two  iron  pistons,  about  eight  inches  in 
diameter,  attached  to  the  elevator  platform,  one  on  each 
side,  move  smoothly  up  and  down  in  perpendicular  iron 
cylinders.  A  turn  of  the  handle  admits  the  water  into 
the  cylinder  beneath  the  pistons,  which  are  forced  up  by 
the  pressure,  and  with  them  the  elevator.  A  reverse 
movement  of  the  handle  allows  the  water  to  escape  from 
the  cylinders,  and  the  elevator  descends.  Its  movements 
are  noiseless,  and  it  is  managed  with  remarkable  ease. 
Up  and  down,  this  servant,  swift  and  silent,  bears  the 
moneys  of  the  people.  It  is  just  descending,  piled  high 
with  packages,  some  directed  to  banks,  railroad  and  man- 
ufacturing companies.  Others  are  addressed  to  assistant 
treasurers  and  depositors  of  the  United  States.  Much  is 
going  to  replace  the  old  money  already  sent  back  to  the 
Treasury  for  destruction.  All  will  be  carried  away,  as  it 
was  brought  in  its  neophite  state,  by  Adams'  Express  Com- 
pany, which  is  bound  by  contract  to  transact  all  the  vast 
money  transportation  business  of  the  Government.  This 
contract  confers  mutual  advantage,  both  on  the  Company 
and  the  Government.  To  the  latter,  because  it  obtains 
transportation  at  a  much  lower  rate  than  it  could  other- 
wise do,  paying  but  twenty-five  cents  for  each  thousand 
dollars  transported ;  while,  at  even  this  per  cent,  the  Com- 


DETECTING   COUNTERFEITS.  331 

pany  can  grow  rich  on  the  monopoly  of  the  vast  money 
transportation  business  of  the  Government  of  the  United 

States. 

Alas !  for  our  dollar  that  went  forth  from  the  paternal 
door — as  many  another  child  has  done — unsullied,  only  to 
return  at  a  later  day  from  its  contact  with  the  world,  be- 
grimed, demoralized,  despoiled.  Where  is  our  pretty 
dollar,  fresh  and  pure  ?  Every  delicate  line  defaced,  tat- 
tered, filthy,  worn  out — this  wretched  little  rag,  surely, 
cannot  be  it !  And  yet  it  is.  This  is  what  the  world's 
hard  hand  has  made  our  dollar. 

We  have  reached  the  Redemption  Division  of  the  Treas- 
urer's Bureau,  and  stand  in  one  of  the  rooms  devoted  to 
the  counting  of  mutilated  currency  and  the  detection  of 
counterfeits.  This  difficult  and  responsible  labor  of  the 
public  service  is  performed  solely  by  women. 

In  the  long  rooms  on  either  side  of  the  marble  hall,  on 
the  north  ground  floor  of  the  Treasury  Building,  may  be 
seen  one  hundred  and  fifty  women,  whose  deft  and  deli- 
cate fingers  are  ceaselessly  busy  detecting  counterfeits, 
identifying,  restoring,  counting  and  registering  worn-out 
currency  which  has  come  home  to  be  "redeemed." 
Each  lady  sits  at  a  table  by  herself,  that  the  money  com- 
mitted to  her  may  not  become  mixed  with  that  to  be 
counted  by  any  other  person. 

The  fractional  currency  sent  to  the  Treasury  for  re- 
demption is  usually  assorted  by  denominations  only. 
The  work  of  assorting  by  issues  remains  to  be  done  by 
the  counters  of  the  Treasury.  As  there  are  four  distinct 
issues  of  most  of  the  denominations,  each  of  which  must 
be  assorted  by  itself,  this  labor  alone  is  a  vast  one  to  the 


332  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

counters.  Looking  on  their  tables  we  see  them  heaped 
with  little  piles  of  currency,  each  made  of  a  denomina- 
tion or  issue  different  from  the  rest.  Thus  every  new 
issue  increases  the  labor  of  currency-redemption.  With 
clear  eyes  and  patient  hand,  the  lady  bending  over  this 
table  takes  up  slowly  every  bill  and  scrutinizes  it,  first, 
to  see  if  it  be  genuine.  Over  three  hundred  dollars  in 
counterfeit  notes  are  found  in  the  fractional  currency, 
daily.  This  fact  alone  is  sufficient  to  make  the  counting 
of  the  Eedemption  Division  far  less  rapid  than  that  of 
the  Division  of  Issues. 

The  first  thing  that  a  lady  at  a  redemption  table  doe» 
with  her  money  packages  is,  to  compare  their  numbei 
with  the  inventory  which  accompanies  them.  If  thero 
is  none,  she  makes  one.  If  there  is  a  discrepancy  between 
the  packages  and  the  number  claimed,  she  refers  to  a  clerk, 
that  there  may  be  no  mistake.  She  then  proceeds  to  the 
examination  of  a  single  package.  After  she  has  placed 
all  the  rest  in  a  box,  so  that  no  strap  or  stray  scrip  from 
another  bundle  may  mix  with  the  first ;  when  she  has  scru- 
tinized and  counted  every  note  in  the  package,  she  puts 
the  strap  on  again,  marking  it  with  her  initials,  the  date, 
the  amount,  the  "shorts,"  "overs,"  and  "counterfeits." 
Thus  she  continues  till  every  package  has  been  counted. 
She  then  proceeds  to  assort  the  notes  into  packages,  each 
containing  one  hundred  notes,  each  of  the  same  denomi- 
nation and  issue,  which  she  binds  with  a  "  brand  new " 
printed  strap  again,  marked  with  her  initials  and  date. 
All  the  notes  over  even  hundreds  she  places  by  them- 
selves. These  in  turn  are  given  to  distinct  counters, 
whose  sole  business  it  is  to  make  even  hundreds  out  of 
these  odd  numbers. 


REDEMPTION  OF  CURRENCY.  333 

The  first  counter  then  enters  in  a  book,  having  a 
blank  form  for  the  purpose,  printed  in  duplicate  on  one 
side  of  each  leaf,  a  statement  of  the  result  of  her  count, 
containing  the  net  amount  found  due  to  the  owner,  the 
aggregate  of  the  "  shorts,"  the  "overs,"  the  "  counterfeits" 
discovered  and  the  amount  claimed.  One  of  these  dupli- 
cates is  retained  in  the  book  as  her  voucher ;  the  other 
is  attached  to  the  letter  which  accompanied  the  money ; 
all  together  are  handed  to  the  clerk,  who  draws  the 
check  which  is  to  be  sent  in  return ;  or,  if  new  currency 
is  to  be  sent  from  the  cash  division,  the  clerk  writes  the 
order  on  which  it  is  to  be  forwarded. 

This  is  the  story  of  but  one  package  of  mutilated 
money  of  the  tens  of  thousands  that  are  received  at  the 
Treasury  every  day.  The  Government  has  provided  the 
most  munificent  facilities  for  the  redemption  of  its  cur- 
rency and  the  maintenance  of  its  credit  in  circulation. 
To  what  an  extent  the  nation  avails  itself  of  these  facili- 
ties no  one  can  realize  who  has  never  visited  the  Treasury. 
Regular  transportation,  at  the  expense  of  the  Government, 
is  provided  by  express  for  the  redemption  of  all  currency. 
Everything  demanded  of  its  holders  is,  that  they  should 
send  it  in  proper  amounts ;  then  its  transportation  is  paid, 
and  new  currency  sent  back  in  its  stead.  This  liberality 
in  the  Government  is  partly  accounted  for  in  the  fact  that 
fresh  notes  are  a  prevention  of  counterfeits.  A  fresh,  new 
note  cannot  be  counterfeited.  Its  exquisite  tints  and 
lines  cannot  be  reproduced  by  any  false  hand.  Only 
after  its  beauty  has  been  obscured  is  the  attempt  made. 
Thus  it  is  said  that  counterfeiters  "  soil  and  rumple  their 
spurious  notes,  to  give  them  the  appearance  of  having 
been  in  circulation  a  long  time."  Thus  many  banks 


334  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

never  sort;  over  or  pay  out  any  fractional  currency  which 
they  receive,  but  put  it  into  packages  and  send  it  to  the 
Treasury  at  the  close  of  each  day's  business,  so  that 
nothing  but  clean  notes  are  ever  paid  over  their  counters. 
By  doing  this  they  are  saved  the  immense  labor  of  re- 
assorting  old  notes,  and  afford  their  applicants  the  happi- 
ness of  always  receiving  new  ones. 

Only  the  room  in  which  the  express  messengers  deliver 
their  remittances  can  give  any  idea  of  the  vast  amounts 
sent  daily  to  the  Treasury  for  redemption.  Here  we  find 
counters,  tables,  and  the  floor  piled  high  with  damaged 
money  from  every  State  in  the  Union.  Two  and  three 
hundred  packages  are  often  received  by  express  in  a  sin- 
gle day.  The  greater  part  of  these  contain  postage  and 
fractional  currency.  The  Assistant  Treasurer  of  New 
York  forwards  a  remittance  of  fractional  currency  every 
ten  or  twelve  days,  never  less  than  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  and  the  amounts  sent  from  other  treasury  officers 
are  proportionately  large.  Over  thirty-one  million  dol- 
lars in  fractional  currency  were  received  and  counted 
during  the  last  fiscal  year — about  one  hundred  thousand 
dollars  for  each  working  day.  Every  note  in  this  large 
sum  has  to  be  counted,  studied,  assorted  with  all  others 
of  the  same  denomination  and  issue ;  strapped,  labelled, 
reported,  delivered — all  done  by  women. 

The  last  room  to  which  the  counter  carries  our  dollar 
is  the  cancelling  room.  She  has  just  reported  to  the 
chief  of  the  Redemption  Division  the  result  of  her  count, 
in  the  following  duplicate  report  on  the  broad  paper 
strap  which  binds  her  bundle  of  soiled  notes : 


HOW   THE   WOEK   IS   DONE. 


335 


AMOUNT,  $5,000  00 

From  Fiftieth  National  Bank,  New  York  City. 

Received  July  9,  1873,  by  MARY  JONES. 


Legal, 

-    $4,000.00 

Counterfeit, 

820.00 

Full  Currency, 

900.00 

Discount, 

5.00 

Odds, 

40.00 

Rejected,    - 

-    5.00 

Discounted,  - 

-       20.00 

Short  by  Inventory, 

15.00  

$4,960.00 

Short  by  Strap, 
Over  by  Strap, 

$40.  OU 
5.00 

Net  Short, 

$40.00 

The  $4,960  is  immediately  sent  to  the  bank  in  any 
denomination  of  new  notes  requested,  or  if  no  such  re- 
quest has  been  made,  it  is  sent  in  exactly  the  denomina- 
tions received.  And  now  our  lady-counter  proceeds  to 
attend  the  cancelling  of  the  notes  which  she  has  counted, 
and  which  the  Treasury  has  already  redeemed.  A  mes- 
senger carries  her  precious  bundle  in  a  box,  but  she  must 
keep  messenger,  box,  and  bundle  in  sight;  for,  from  the 
moment  that  she  receives  it,  till  she  places  it  in  the  last 
cash-account  clerk's  hands,  she  is  personally  responsible 
for  its  contents.  If,  by  any  possibility,  it  could  be  spirited 
away,  she  would  be  obliged  to  pay  for  every  ragged  dol- 
lar out  of  her  little  stipend. 

This  is  a  bustling  sight.  Messengers,  each  with  a 
counter,  are  rushing  in  and  out  with  their  boxes  full  of 
strapped  and  labelled  currency.  Round  a  large  table 
crowd  many  fair  women,  while  every  instant  "thud! 
thud !  "  strike  the  precious  packages.  Each  in  turn  is 
taken  up  by  the  canceller  and  set  between  the  teeth  of 
Uncle  Sam's  cancelling  machine.  This  is  fashioned  out  of 
two  heavy  horizontal  steel  bars,  five  feet  in  length,  work- 


336  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

ing  on  pivots.  To  the  shorter  end  of  each  is  attached  a 
punch,  while  the  other  is  connected  by  a  lever  with  a 
crank,  in  the  sub-basement  below,  which  is  propelled 
by  a  turbine  water-wheel  furnished  with  Potomac-water 
from  one  of  the  pipes  of  the  building.  Under  its  grind- 
ing "  punch  "  our  poor  little  dollar  goes,  and  with  it  a 
hundred  dollars  beside.  With  a  savage  accuracy  it  stabs 
two  holes  through  every  one.  This  is  done  for  the  pur- 
pose of  absolute  cancellation.  Then  each  bundle  is  re- 
turned to  its  box,  the  messenger  picks  it  up,  the  counter 
follows,  and  both  hasten  to  the  cash-account  clerk  of  the 
division,  whose  business  it  is  to  see  if  all  the  money  re- 
ceived and  delivered  to  the  counters,  has  been  returned 
and  accounted  for.  Not  until  she  sees  her  box  of  can- 
celled notes  safe  in  the  hands  of  this  clerk,  does  the 
counter's  personal  responsibility  end. 

Near  the  punches  in  the  cancelling  room  is  a  ferocious- 
looking  knife,  set  in  an  axle,  which  is  consecrated  to  the 
purpose  of  cutting  the  cancelled  bundles  in  two,  through 
the  middle  of  each  note.  These  are  made  into  packages 
of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  of  fractional  currency, 
and  larger  sums  of  legal  tender  notes ;  and  are  sent  back  to 
this  office  to  be  cut  asunder  by  this  knife.  The  duplicate 
paper  and  strap  which  our  fair  counter  bound  about  this 
bundle,  is  so  printed  as  to  show,  upon  each  half,  the  de- 
nomination, issue  and  amount  of  the  notes  enclosed. 
The  counter's  initials  and  the  date  of  counting  are  also 
recorded  at  each  end,  as  well  as  a  number  or  letter  to 
identify  the  bundle.  These  sundered  notes  are  now  sent, 
one-half  to  counters  in  the  Secretary's  office,  the  other 
half  to  counters  in  the  Registrar's  office,  where  every  lit- 
tle wretched  rag  is  re-counted.  This  is  done  as  a  check 


THE  FUNERAL  OF  A  DOLLAR.          337 


on  the  Treasurer's  counters,  and  to  secure  absolute 
racy.  If  these  second  counters  discover  a  "short"  or  a 
"  counterfeit  "  passed  over  by  the  first  fair  fingers,  the 
full  amount  is  taken  out  of  the  wages  of  the  counter 
whose  initials  the  tell-tale  package  bears. 

The  Treasury  mills  grind  slowly  ;  but  in  the  slow  full- 
ness of  time  the  separate  "  counts  "  of  three  offices  —  the 
Treasurer's,  the  Register's,  the  Secretary's  —  are  finally 
reconciled.  The  integrity  of  the  Government,  throughout 
the  whole  existence  of  its  minutest  fraction,  has  been 
maintained  and  demonstrated.  In  the  process  there  is 
not  much  left  of  our  poor  little  dollar,  and  nothing  left 
for  us  but  to  go  to  its  funeral.  Like  most  of  us,  it  has 
had  rather  a  hard  time  in  this  world  of  ours.  Where 
has  it  not  lived  —  from  a  palace  to  "  a  pig's  stomach  ;"  and 
what  has  it  not  endured  —  from  the  scarlet  rash  to  the 
gmall-pox  —  and  to  think  that  nothing  remains  for  it  now 
but  to  be  burned  !  Only  through  purgatorial  flame  can 
it  be  fully  and  finally  "  redeemed." 

About  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment, in  what  is  called  (t  White  Lot,"  stands  the  furnace 
which  is  to  consume  our  dollar.  The  furnace,  and  the 
building  in  which  it  stands,  was  built  expressly  for  this 
purpose  for  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars.  The  fur- 
nace is  ten  feet  high,  seven  in  diameter,  circular  and  open 
at  the  top.  With  it  is  connected  an  air-blower,  which  is 
attached  to  an  engine,  the  steam  for  which  comes  from  a 
boiler  some  twenty  rods  distant.  On  the  ground  about 
lie  piles  of  cinders  —  the  metallic  ashes  of  extinct  dollars, 
compounded  of  pins,  sulphur,  printer's  ink  and  dirt 

To  this  furnace,  filled  with  shavings  in  advance,  every 
other  day  comes  "  The  Burning  Committee,"  bearing  the 
22 


338  TEN   TEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

boxes  of  doomed  dollars,  sealed  finally  in  the  Kegister's 
and  Secretary's  Bureaus.  This  Committee  is  formed  of  a 
person  from  each  of  these  Bureaus,  with  a  fourth  not  con- 
nected with  the  Departments.  In  their  presence  the  final 
seals  are  broken — the  complicated  locks  of  the  furnace 
opened.  Then  the  packages  are  thrown  into  the  flames, 
each  "  lot "  being  called  and  checked  by  the  Committee, 
the  amount  averaging  about  one  million  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars  every  other  day.  At  the  same  hour 
about  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  national  bank 
notes  are  burned  at  another  and  smaller  furnace.  Beside 
cancelled  money,  internal  revenue  and  postage  stamps, 
checks  and  defective  new  money  are  all  consumed  in  this 
furnace. 

Here  the  three  official  delegates,  with  a  few  spectators, 
stand  to  witness  the  sight.  Worn  out,  used  up,  gone  by 
— all  pass  into  the  furnace,  our  dollar  with  the  rest.  The 
furnace  is  locked,  by  official  hands,  with  nine  distinct 
locks.  A  match  is  set  to  the  shavings ;  the  smoke  of  the 
sacrifice  begins  to  ascend — the  Committee  depart.  The 
fire  and  the  money  are  left  alone  together  for  the  next 
twenty-four  hours.  To-morrow  a  smutty  aerolite,  smoth- 
ered in  ashes,  will  be  the  significant  "  finis  "  of  the  story 
of  our  dollar.  It  has  had  its  day ! 


CHAPTER   XXXIH. 

THE    GREAT    CASH-ROOM— THE    WATCH-DOG   OP    THE 
TREASURY.- 

No  Need  for  Dirty  Money— The  Flowers  of  July— Money  Affairs— The 
Great  Cash-Room— Its  Marble  Glories— A  Glance  Inside— The  Beautiful 
Walls— A  Good  Deal  of  Very  Bad  Taste— Only  Made  of  Plaster— The 
Clerks  of  the  Cash-Room—New  Money  for  Old— The  National  Treasury 
— «  The  Watch-Dog  "  of  the  Treasury— The  Custodian  of  the  Cash— A 
Broken-nosed  Pitcher — Ink  for  the  Autographs — His  Ancient  Chair — 
"  The  General  "— "  Crooked,  Crotchety  and  Great-hearted"—"  Princi- 
ples "  and  Pantaloons— Below  the  Surface — An  Unpaintable  Face — An 
Object  of  Personal  Curiosity — Dick  and  Dolly  pay  the  General  a  Visit — 
How  the  Thing  is  Done—"  Pretty  Thoroughly  Wrought  Up  "—A  Couple 
without  any  Claims — Gratified  in  the  Very  Jolliest  Fashion — Getting  his 
Autograph — A  Specimen  for  the  Folks  at  Home — Realizing  a  Responsi- 
bility— Where  the  Treasurer  Sleeps — Going  the  Round  at  Night—  Mak- 
ing .  Assurance  Sure— Awakened  by  a  Strong  Impression — Sleepless — 
In  the  "  Small  Hours  "—Finding  the  Door  Open— A  Careless  Clerk— The 
Care  of  Eight  Hundred  Millions — On  the  Alert— The  Secretary's  Room 
— Three  at  the  Table — Doings  and  Duties — The  Labors  of  the  Secretary 
and  Comptrollers— The  Auditors— The  Solicitor's  Office— The  Light- 
House  Board — The  Coast  Survey — Internal  Revenue  Department. 

"^TOBODY  need  ever  carry  a  smutty  bit  of  money  in 
-LN  Washington.  Lay  down  the  worst  looking  fraction 
you  ever  saw,  upon  the  marble  counter  of  the  Cash-Koom, 
and  a  virgin  piece,  without  blemish,  will  be  given  you  in 
its  stead.  Do  you  wish  ten  unsoiled  "  ones "  for  that 
ragged  "  ten  "  of  yours  ?  Take  it  to  the  Cash-Room,  and 
the  desire  of  your  heart  will  be  granted  in  a  moment. 
To  do  this  you  turn  out  of  Pennsylvania  avenue  towards 


340  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

the  north  front  of  the  Treasury.  On  either  side,  spread 
away  broad  beds  of  flowers.  In  April,  their  hyacinths 
sent  great  drifts  of  fragrance,  blocks  away ;  in  May,  it 
was  one  great  garden  of  roses,  and  now  it  has  burst  into 
a  passion  of  bloom,  a  very  carnival  of  color — the  burning 
scarlet  of  the  geraniums  mocking  the  dazzling  azure  of 
the  sky.  On  either  side  run  these  lavish  hues.  Before 
you,  cooling  the  marble  court  beneath  your  feet,  the 
great  fountain  tosses  its  spray.  Toward  you  stretches 
the  long  restful  shadow  of  the  northern  portico,  inviting 
you  to  enter  in. 

If  your  visit  means  "money,"  as  it  may,  you  pass  di- 
rectly through  the  portico  to  the  Cash-Room,  into  which 
it  opens.  No  other  room  in  the  world  as  magnificent  is 
devoted  to  such  a  purpose.  It  is  seventy- two  feet  long, 
thirty-two  feet  wide,  and  twenty-seven  feet  six  inches 
high.  Exclusive  of  the  upper  cornice,  the  walls  are  built 
entirely  of  marble.  Seven  varieties  meet  and  merge  into 
each  other,  to  make  the  harmony  of  its  blended  hues. 
From  the  main  floor  it  rises  through  two  stories  of  the 
building.  Thus  it  has  upper  and  lower  windows,  be- 
tween which  a  narrow  bronze  gallery  runs,  encircling  the 
entire  room.  The  base  of  the  stylobate  of  the  first  story 
is  black  Vermont  marble,  the  mouldings  are  Bardiglio 
Italian,  the  styles  dove  Vermont  marble,  the  panels 
Sienna  Italian,  and  the  dies  Tennessee.  Above  the  stylo- 
bate,  the  styles  are  of  Sienna  marble.  With  these  are 
contrasted  the  pale  primrose  tints  of  the  Corinthian 
pilasters  and  a  cornice  of  white-veined  Italian  marble. 
Opposite  the  windows,  and  in  corresponding  positions 
at  the  ends  of  the  rooms,  are  panels  of  the  dark-veined 
Bardiglio  Italian  marble,  the  exact  size  of  the  windows. 


THE  "WATCH-DOG"  OF  THE  TREASURY.         341 

The  stylobate  and  the  styles  and  pilasters  of  the  second 
story  show  the  same  tints  and  variety  of  marbles  which 
mark  the  first.  But  the  panels  are  of  Sarran  Golum 
marble,  from  the  Pyrenees.  The  latter  is  one  of  the 
rarest  of  marbles;  at  a  distance,  of  a  blood-red  hue. 
Upon  nearer  inspection,  it  reveals  undreamed-of  beau- 
ties in  veining  and  tint. 

The  pilasters  of  the  second  story  are  not  like  those  of 
the  first  story,  pure — but  complex.  They  support  a  cor- 
nice, not  of  wrought  marble,  as  all  the  remainder  of  the 
room  would  promise,  but  of  plaster  of  Paris,  fantastically 
wrought  and  profusely  gilded.  This  cornice  is  another 
blot  of  that  meretricious  ornamentation  which  in  so  many 
noble  spaces  disfigures  the  Capitol. 

Extending  the  length  of  the  room  is  a  costly  counter, 
of  various  marbles,  surmounted  by  a  balustrade  of  mahog- 
any and  plate-glass.  Within  this  are  busy  the  clerks  of 
the  Cash-Room,  and  over  this  marble  counter  you,  as  one 
of  its  many  proprietors,  may  receive,  for  the  asking,  ten 
"  ones  "  for  one  "  ten  " — new  money  for  old. 

From  this  superb  room  of  the  people  we  pass  to  that 
of  the  Treasurer, — "  the  watch-dog  of  the  Treasury," — 
the  man  who  holds  and  guards  the  untold  millions  of  the 
nation.  It  is  a  plain  room,  very.  No  thought  of  luxury, 
it  is  easy  to  see,  has  touched  an  article  of  its  furniture, 
from  his  well-worn  chair  to  the  broken-nosed  pitcher 
which  holds  the  General's  ink ;  that  ink,  thick  as  mud 
and  black  as  Egyptian  night,  out  of  which  he  constructs 
these  marvellous  hieroglyphics,  which,  on  our  legal-tender 
notes,  has  become  one  of  the  most  baffling  studies  of  the 
nation. 

"  The  General !  "     That's  his  name,  from  the  roof  to 


342  TEN  YEAKS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

the  cellar  of  the  vast  Treasury ;  crooked,  crotchety,  great- 
hearted ;  nobody  swears  so  loud,  or  is  so  generous,  or 
just,  as  "the  General."  Every  afflicted  soul,  from  the 
women,  poor  and  old,  who  stand  by  the  printing-presses 
under  the  scorching  roof,  to  Mary  Walker,  whose  devo- 
tion to  "  her  principles,"  in  the  form  of  a  pair  of  hideous 
little  pantaloons,  causes  her  justly  to  shed  tubs  of  tears, — 
all  are  sure  of  a  hearing,  and  of  redress,  if  possible,  from 
"  the  General."  His  face  is  as  astonishing  as  his  signature. 
It  is  a  Lincolnian  face  in  this,  that  its  best  expression  can 
never  be  transferred  to  a  picture.  In  life  it  is  rugged, 
ugly  at  first  glance,  genial  at  the  second.  The  eyes 
twinkle  with  humor  and  kindness ;  the  wide  mouth  shuts 
tight  with  wilfulness  and  determination ;  the  whole  ex- 
pression and  presence  of  the  man  indicate  energy,  hon- 
esty, and  power. 

General  Spinner  is  an  object  of  personal  curiosity  to 
all  sight-seers  who  visit  Washington.  Dick  and  Dolly 
having  puzzled  their  eyes  for  an  hour,  studying  some  fresh 
legal  tender  note,  to  discover  by  what  process  of  evolu- 
tion and  convolution  the  remarkable  signature  which  it 
bears  is  fashioned,  when  they  came  to  the  Capital,  pro- 
ceeded to  the  Treasury  to  see,  not  only  the  man  who 
makes  it,  but  how  he  makes  it.  Bluff,  and  even  snappish 
at  first  approach,  after  a  little  wilful  snarling,  our  Gen- 
eral subsides  into  the  most  amiable  of  mastiffs.  He  is  an 
exception  to  the  official  class,  in  his  hate  of  exclusiveness 
and  his  never-failing  accessibility.  Indeed,  he  would 
have  far  less  to  irritate  him,  if  he  made  himself  more 
unapproachable  and  remote.  As  it  is,  all  sorts  of  tor- 
menting people,  finding  it  perfectly  easy  to  "  get  at 
him,"  do  not  neglect  the  privilege,  and  altogether  keep 


GENERAL    SPINNER'S   AUTOGRAPH.  343 

him  pretty  thoroughly  "  wrought  up  "  with  their  never- 
ending  and  perpetually  conflicting  woes.  Dicky  and 
Dolly,  fresh  from  their  farm,  who  ask  for  no  "  place  "  in 
any  "  division "  whatever,  who  have  no  alert  grievance 
grumbling  for  redress,  who  wish  for  nothing  but,  "  Please, 
sir,  will  you  just  show  us  how  you  make  it — that  queer 
name  ?  "  are  sure  to  be  gratified  in  the  very  jolliest  fash- 
ion. The  General  stabs  the  old  pen  with  three  points 
down  into  the  pudding-like  ink  which  sticks  to  the  bot- 
tom of  the  broken-nosed  pitcher,  and  proceeds  to  pile  it 
up  in  ridiculous  little  heaps  at  cross  angles  on  a  bit  of 
paper.  The  result  of  his  "  piling,"  which  Dick  and  Dolly 
watch  with  breathless  interest,  is  his  signature,  which  our 
happy  friends  bear  off  in  triumph  to  show  to  the  "  folks 
at  home."  "  Yes,  sir,  the  autograph  of  the  Treasurer  of 
the  United  States  !  and  we  saw  him  make  it,  we  did  !  A 
queer  lookin'  man,  but  good  as  pie,  I  can  tell  you ;  has  a 
feelin'  for  folks,  as  if  he  wasn't  no  better  than  them,  if 
he  does  take  care  of  all  the  money  of  the  United  States 
Treasury,  which,  I  tell  you,  is  a  heap ! " 

The  taking  care  of  this  money  is  a  mighty  responsibil- 
ity, which  General  Spinner  realizes  to  the  utmost.  From 
his  small  room  in  the  Treasury,  a  door  opens  into  a  still 
smaller  one.  In  this  little  room,  beneath  the  mighty 
roof  of  the  Treasury,  the  keeper  of  its  millions  sleeps. 
Before  he  essays  to  do  this,  twice  every  night  the  guard- 
ian of  the  people's  treasure  goes  himself  to  the  money 
vault,  and,  with  his  own  hand  upon  their  handles,  assures 
himself  beyond  doubt  that  the  nation's  money  safes  are 
inviolably  locked. 

In  order  that  he  may  do  this  every  night  before  he  at- 
tempts to  sleep,  and  that  he  may  never  be  beyond  call  in 


344  TEN   YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

case  of  accident  or  wrong  doing,  the  Treasurer  of  the 
United  States  absolutely  lives,  by  day  and  by  night,  in 
the  Treasury.  It  is  told  of  him  that,  "  Once,  before  he 
began  sleeping  in  the  Treasury,  he  was  awakened  in  the 
night  by  a  strong  impression  that  something  was  wrong 
at  the  Department.  He  lay  for  a  long  time,  tossing  un- 
easily upon  his  bed,  and  trying  to  close  his  eyes  and  con- 
vince himself  that  it  was  a  mere  freak  of  an  over-taxed 
brain  ;  but  it  would  not  be  driven  away.  At  last,  about 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning,  in  order  to  assure  himself  that 
his  impression  was  at  fault,  he  arose,  hastily  dressed,  and* 
set  out  for  the  Treasury.  On  his  way  he  met  a  watchman 
from  the  Department,  hastening  to  arouse  him,  with  the 
information  that  the  door  of  one  of  the  vaults  had  just  been 
found  standing  wide  open.  A  careless  clerk,  whose  duty  it 
was  to  close  and  lock  the  door,  had  failed  to  perform  his 
duty  that  night,  and  the  watchman,  on  going  his  rounds, 
had  discovered  the  neglect." 

Since  that  night  the  Treasurer  has  slept  in  the  Treas- 
ury, and  been  night-inspector  of  its  doors  and  locks 
himself. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  appreciate  his  personal  anxiety 
and  consciousness  of  vast  responsibility,  when  we  remem- 
ber that  he  is  the  hourly  keeper  of  at  least  eight  hundred 
million  dollars  which  belong  to  the  nation.  There  are 
very  few  officers  of  the  Government  who  are  called  to 
bring  to  bear  upon  their  daily  duties  the  ceaseless  vigi- 
lance, the  sacrifice  of  personal  ease  and  comfort  in  the 
service  of  the  State,  which  characterizes  the  honest,  tire- 
less, invincible  "  watch-dog  of  the  Treasury." 

The  room  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  the 
Treasury  building,  has  its  outlook  on  the  eastern  side 


THE  SECRETARY'S  ROOM.  345 

and  grounds  of  the  Executive  Mansion.  A  wonderful 
fountain  throws  its  million  jets  into  the  air  at  the  foot  of 
the  great  portico  below,  and  another  tosses  its  spray  amid 
the  green  knolls  opposite  the  President's  windows.  These 
grounds,  swelling  everywhere  into  gentle  hills,  covered 
with  mossy  turf,  filled  with  winding  walks,  and  bright- 
ened with  parterres  of  flowers  in  summer  months,  are  en- 
chanting in  their  beauty. 

Thus,  you  see,  the  Secretary's  windows  quite  turn  their 
backs  on  the  noisy  avenue.  Their  outlook  is  most  serene. 
So  is  the  aspect  and  atmosphere  of  the  room.  It  is  a  nun 
of  a  room, -folded  in  soft  grays,  with  here  and  there  a  touch 
of  blue  and  gold.  The  velvet  carpet  is  gray ;  the  furniture, 
oiled  black  walnut,  upholstered  with  blue  cloth,  each  chair 
and  sofa  bearing  "U.  S."  in  a  medallion  on  its  back,  while 
the  carved  window-cornices  each  hold  in  their  centres  the 
gilded  scales  of  justice  above  the  key  of  the  Treasury.  A 
full-length  mirror  is  placed  between  these  windows.  On 
one  side  of  the  room  is  a  book-case,  in  which  the  works 
of  Webster,  Calhoun,  Washington,  and  Jefferson,  are  con* 
spicuous.  The  walls  are  frescoed  in  neutral  tints,  and  the 
only  pictures  on  them  are  chromo  portraits  of  Lincoln  and 
Grant. 

In  the  centre  of  this  room,  at  a  cloth-covered  table,  sits 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  his  assistants,  besides, 
usually,  a  third  dejected  mortal,  on  the  "  anxious  seat " 
of  expectancy  for  an  office. 

The  Secretary's  office  is  charged  with  the  general  super- 
vision of  the  fiscal  transactions  of  the  Government,  and 
of  the  execution  of  the  laws  concerning  the  commerce 
and  navigation  of  the  United  States.  He  superintends 
the  survey  of  the  coast,  the  light-house  establishment, 


346  TEN   TEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

the  marine  hospitals  of  the  United  States,  and  the  con- 
struction of  certain  public  buildings  for  custom-houses 
and  other  purposes. 

The  First  Comptroller's  office  prescribes  the  mode  of 
keeping  and  rendering  accounts  for  the  civil  and  diplo- 
matic service,  as  well  as  the  public  lands,  and  revises  and 
certifies  the  balances  arising  thereon. 

The  Second  Comptroller's  office  prescribes  the  mode  of 
keeping  and  rendering  the  accounts  of  the  army,  havy, 
and  Indian  departments  of  the  public  service,  and  revises 
and  certifies  the  balances  arising  thereon. 

The  office  of  Commissioner  of  Customs  prescribes  the 
mode  of  keeping  and  rendering  the  accounts  of  the  cus- 
toms revenue  and  disbursements,  and  for  the  building  and 
repairing  custom-houses,  etc.,  and  revises  and  certifies  the 
balances  arising  thereon. 

The  First  Auditor's  office  receives  and  adjusts  the  ac- 
counts of  the  customs  revenue  and  disbursements,  ap- 
propriations and  expenditures  on  account  of  the  civil 
list  and  under  private  acts  of  Congress,  and  reports  the 
balances  to  the  Commissioner  of  the  Customs  and  the 
First  Comptroller,  respectively,  for  their  decision  thereon. 

The  Second  Auditor's  office  receives  and  adjusts  all 
accounts  relating  to  the  pay,  clothing  and  recruiting  of 
the  army,  as  well  as  armories,  arsenals,  and  ordnance, 
and  all  accounts  relating  to  the  Indian  Bureau,  and  re- 
ports the  balances  to  the  Second  Comptroller  for  his  de- 
cision thereon. 

The  Third  Auditor's  office  adjusts  all  accounts  for  sub- 
sistence of  the  army,  fortifications,  military  academy,  mil- 
itary roads,  and  the  quarter-master's  department,  as  well 
as  for  pensions,  claims  arising  from  military  services  pre- 


WHEEE  THE  GOVERNMENT  WORKS.        347 

vious  to  1816,  and  for  horses  and  other  property  lost  in 
the  military  service,  under  various  acts  of  Congress,  and 
reports  the  balances  to  the  Second  Comptroller  for  his  de- 
cision thereon. 

The  Fourth  Auditor's  office  adjusts  all  accounts  for  the 
service  of  the  Navy  Department,  and  reports  the  balances 
to  the  Second  Comptroller  for  his  decision  thereon. 

The  Fifth  Auditor's  office  adjusts  all  accounts  for  diplo- 
matic and  similar  services,  performed  under  the  direction 
of  the  State  Department,  and  reports  the  balances  to  the 
First  Comptroller  for  his  decision  thereon. 

The  Sixth  Auditor's  office  adjusts  all  accounts  arising 
from  the  service  of  the  Post-office  Department.  His  decis- 
ions are  final,  unless  an  appeal  be  taken  within  twelve 
months  to  the  First  Comptroller.  He  superintends  the  col- 
lection of  all  debts  due  the  Post-office  Department,  and  all 
penalties  and  forfeitures  imposed  on  postmasters  and  mail 
contractors  for  failing  to  do  their  duty ;  he  directs  suits 
and  legal  proceedings,  civil  and  criminal,  and  takes  all  such 
measures  as  may  be  authorized  by  law  to  enforce  the 
prompt  payment  of  moneys  due  to  the  department,  in- 
structing United  States  attorneys,  marshals,  and  clerks, 
on  all  matters  relating  thereto,  and  receives  returns  from 
each  term  of  the  United  States  courts  of  the  condition  and 
progress  of  such  suits  and  legal  proceedings ;  has  charge 
of  all  lands  and  other  property  assigned  to  the  United 
States  in  payment  of  debts  due  the  Post-office  Depart- 
ment, and  has  power  to  sell  and  dispose  of  the  same  for 
the  benefit  of  the  United  States. 

The  Treasurer's  office  receives  and  keeps  the  moneys  of 
the  United  States  in  his  own  office,  and  that  of  the  de- 
positories created  by  the  Act  of  August  6th,  1846,  and 


348  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

pays  out  the  same  upon  warrants  drawn  by  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury,  countersigned  by  the  First  Comp- 
troller, and  upon  warrants  drawn  by  the  Postmaster- 
General  and  countersigned  by  the  Sixth  Auditor,  and 
recorded  by  the  Register.  He  also  holds  public  moneys 
advanced  by  warrant  to  disbursing  officers,  and  pays  out 
the  same  upon  their  checks. 

The  Registrar's  office  keeps  the  accounts  of  public  re- 
ceipts and  expenditures,  receives  the  returns  and  makes 
out  the  official  statement  of  commerce  and  navigation  of 
the  United  States,  and  receives  from  the  First  Comptroller 
and  Commissioner  of  Customs  all  accounts  and  vouchers 
decided  by  them,  and  is  charged  by  law  with  their  safe 
keeping. 

The  Solicitor's  office  superintends  all  civil  suits  com- 
menced by  the  United  States  (except  those  arising  in  the 
post-office  department),  and  instructs  the  United  States 
attorneys,  marshals  and  clerks  in  all  matters  relating  to 
them  and  their  results.  He  receives  returns  from  each 
term  of  the  United  States  courts,  showing  the  progress 
and  condition  of  such  suits ;  has  charge  of  all  lands  and 
other  property  assigned  to  the  United  States  in  payment 
of  debts  (except  those  assigned  in  payment  of  debts  due 
the  post-office  department),  and  has  power  to  sell  and 
dispose  of  the  same  for  the  benefit  of  the  United  States. 

The  Light-House  Board,  of  which  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  is  ex-officio  president,  but  in  the  deliberations  of 
which  he  has  the  assistance  of  naval,  military  and  scien- 
tific coadjutors. 

United  States  Coast  Survey.  The  Superintendent,  with 
numerous  assistants,  employed  in  the  office  and  upon  the 
survey  of  the  coast,  are  under  the  control  of  this  depart- 


THE   INTERNAL   REVENUE   DEPARTMENT.  349 

ment.     A  statement  of  their  duties  will  be   found  in   a 
future  chapter. 

The  new  rooms  of  the  Internal  Revenue  Department 
are  very  beautiful.  They  run  the  entire  length  of  the 
new  wing  of  the  Treasury,  looking  out  on  the  magnifi- 
cent marble  court,  with  its  central  fountain  below,  the 
north  entrance,  the  Presidential  grounds  and  Pennsylva- 
nia avenue.  They  are  covered  with  miles  of  Brussels 
carpeting,  in  green  and  gold.  Their  walls  are  set  with 
elegant  mirrors,  hung  with  maps  and  pictures.  There  are 
globes,  cases  filled  with  books,  cushioned  furniture — all 
the  accompaniments  of  elegant  apartments,  and  one 
opening  into  the  other,  forming  a  perfect  suite. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

WOMAN'S  WORK  IN  THE  DEPARTMENTS— WHAT  THEY 
DO  AND  HOW  THEY  DO  IT. 

Women  Experts  in  the  Treasury — General  Spinner's  Opinion — A  Woman's 
Logic — The  Gifts  of  Women — Their  Superiority  to  Men — Money  Burnt 
in  the  Chicago  Fire — Cases  of  Valuable  Rubbish — Identifying  Burnt 
Greenbacks— The  Treasure  Saved— The  Ashes  of  the  Boston  Fire— 
From  the  Bottom  of  the  Mississippi — Mrs.  Patterson  Saves  a  ' '  Pile  "  of 
Money — Money  in  the  Toes  of  Stockings — In  the  Stomachs  of  Men  and 
Beasts — From  the  Bodies  of  the  Murdered  and  Drowned — Not  Fairly 
Paid— One  Hundred  and  Eighty  Women  at  Work—"  The  Broom  Brig- 
ade"— Scrubbing  the  Floors — The  Soldier's  Widow — Stories  which 
Might  be  Told — Meditating  Suicide— The  Struggle  of  Life — How  a 
Thousand  Women  are  Employed — Speaking  of  Their  Characters — The 
Ill-paid  Servants  of  the  Country — Chief-Justice  Taney's  Daughters — Col- 
onel Albert  Johnson's  Daughter — A  Place  Where  Men  are  Not  Employed 
— Writing  "  for  the  Press  " — Miss  Grundy  of  New  York — The  Internal 
Revenue  Bureau — "  Marvels  of  Mechanical  Beauty  " — Women  of  Busi- 
ness Capacity — A  Lady  as  Big  as  Two  Books ! — In  a  Man's  Place — A 

-  Disgrace  to  the  Nation — Working  for  Two,  Paid  for  One — How  "Re- 
trenchment "  is  Carried  Out — In  the  Departments — Beaten  by  a  Woman 
— The  Post  Office  Department — Folding  "  Dead  Letters  "—A  Woman 
who  has  Worked  Well—"  Sorrow  Does  Not  Kill  "—The  Patent  Office— 
The  Agricultural  Department — Changes  Which  Should  be  Made. 

IN  several   branches   of   the  Treasury  service,  women 
have  risen  to  the  proficiency  of  experts.     This  is  es- 
pecially  true  of   them  as   rapid  and  accurate  counters, 
as   restorers  of  mutilated   currency   and   as   counterfeit 
detectors. 

General  Spinner  says:    "A  man  will  examine  a  note 
systematically  and  deduce  logically,  from  the  imperfect 


WOMEN   EXPERTS   IN   THE   TREASURY.  351 

engraving,  blurred  vignette  or  indistinct  signature,  that  it 
is  counterfeit,  and  be  wrong  four  cases  out  of  ten.  A 
woman  picks  up  a  note,  looks  at  it  in  a  desultory  fashion  of 
her  own,  and  says :  ( That's  counterfeit.'  i  Why  ? '  i  Because 
it  is,'  she  answers  promptly,  and  she  is  right  eleven  cases  out 
of  twelve."  Yet  this  almost  unerring  accuracy  is  by  no 
means  the  result  of  mere  instinct,  or  of  hap-hazard  chance. 
It  is  the  sequence  of  subtle  perception,  of  fine,  keen  vis- 
ion, and  of  exquisite  sensitiveness  of  touch. 

All  women  do  not  excel  as  counterfeit-detectors;  nor 
can  all  become  experts  as  restorers  and  counters  of  cur- 
rency. But  wherever  a  woman  possesses  native  quick- 
ness, combined  with  power  of  concentration,  with  train- 
ing and  experience,  she  in  time  commands  an  absolute 
skill  in  her  work,  which,  it  has  been  proved,  it  is  impossi- 
ble for  men  to  attain.  Her  very  fineness  of  touch,  swift- 
ness of  movement,  and  subtlety  of  sight  give  her  this  ad- 
vantage. Thus  when  notes  are  defaced  or  charred  beyond 
ordinary  recognition,  they  are  placed  in  the  hands  of 
women  for  identification. 

After  the  great  Chicago  fire  in  1871,  cases  of  money 
to  the  value  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  thousand,  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-seven  dollars  and  ninety-eight  cents, 
were  sent  to  the  United  States  Treasury  for  identification. 
They  consisted  of  legal  tenders,  National  State  bank  and 
fractional  notes,  bonds,  certificates  and  coupons,  internal 
revenue  and  postage  stamps,  all  so  shrivelled  and  burned, 
that  they  crumbled  to  the  touch  and  defied  unaided  eye- 
sight. All  these  charred  treasures  were  placed  in  the 
hands  of  a  committee  of  six  ladies,  for  identification. 
What  patience,  practice,  skill,  were  indispensable  to  the 
fulfilment  of  this  task,  it  is  not  difficult  to  conjecture. 


352  TEN  YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

"After  unpacking  the  money  from  the  raw  cotton  in 
which  it  travelled,  as  jealously  swathed  as  the  most  precious 
jewellery,  the  ladies  separated  each  small  piece  with  thin 
knives  made  for  the  purpose,  then  laying  the  blackened 
fragments  on  sheets  of  blotting-paper,  they  decided  by 
close  scrutiny  the  value,  genuineness  and  nature  of  the 
note.  Magnifying  glasses  were  provided,  but  seldom  used, 
except  for  the  deciphering  of  coupon-numbers  or  other  mi- 
nute details.  The  pieces  were  then  pasted  on  thin  paper, 
the  bank-notes  returned  to  their  respective  banks,  and  the 
United  States  money  put  in  sealed  envelopes  and  deliv- 
ered to  a  committee  of  four,  who  superintended  the  final 
burning.  The  amount  of  one  million,  two  hundred  and 
twenty-six  thousand,  three  hundred  and  forty-one  dollars 
and  thirty-three  cents  was  identified — over  seventy-six  per 
cent,  of  the  whole." 

A  year  later,  Boston,  from  the  ruins  of  its  great  fire, 
gathered  the  ashes  of  its  money  and  sent  it  to  the  United 
States  Treasury,  begging  identification  and  aid  in  restora- 
tion. Eighty-three  cases  came  from  that  city,  and  these 
were  so  carefully  packed  that  the  labor  of  identification 
was  greatly  lightened.  Of  the  eighty-eight  thousand, 
eight  hundred  and  twelve  dollars  and  ninety-nine  cents, 
which  they  contained,  over  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  whole 
was  identified  by  the  same  six  ladies,  who  saved  so  much  to 
individuals  and  to  the  Government  from  the  Chicago  fire. 

Besides  money,  a  large  amount  of  checks,  drafts,  prom- 
issory notes,  insurance  policies,  and  other  valuable  papers 
were  identified  by  these  same  clear  eyes  and  patient 
hands,  and  restored  to  their  owners.  The  entire  respon- 
sibility of  the  whole  amount  rested  on  them.  The  money 
was  delivered  to  them,  when  ifc  came,  and  on  their  reports 


MOXET  SAVED  FROM  FIRE  AND  WATER.      353 

all  remittances  on  it  were  made.  It  took  over  six  months 
of  constant  labor  to  identify  the  money  from  these  fires. 

The  names  of  this  committee  of  six  are  Mrs.  M.  J. 
Patterson,  Miss  Pearl,  Mrs.  Davis,  Miss  Schriner,  Miss 
Wright,  and  Miss  Powers.  "Mrs.  Patterson  has  been 
engaged  for  seven  or  eight  years  on  what  are  called 
'affidavit  cases' — cases  where  the  money  is  too  badly 
mutilated  to  be  redeemed  in  the  regular  way,  and  the 
sender  testifying  under  oath  that  the  missing  fragments 
are  totally  destroyed,  receives  whatever  proportion  of  the 
original  value  allowed  by  the  rules." 

The  most  noted  case  that  she  ever  worked  on  was  that 
of  a  paymaster's  trunk  that  was  sunk  in  the  Mississippi, 
in  the  Robert  Carter.  After  lying  three  years  in  the  bot- 
tom of  the  river,  the  steamer  was  raised,  and  the  money, 
soaked,  rotten  and  obliterated,  given  to  Mrs.  Patterson 
for  identification.  She  saved  one  hundred  and  eighty-five 
thousand  out  of  two  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  the 
express  company,  which  was  responsible  for  the  original 
amount,  presented  her  with  five  hundred  dollars,  as  a 
recognition  of  her  services. 

All  the  money  which  she  identifies  passes  from  the 
hands  of  this  lady  to  a  committee  of  three — two  gentle- 
men, one  from  the  Treasurer's  and  one  from  the  Regis- 
ter's office,  and  a  lady  from  the  Secretary's  office.  The 
duties  of  these  three  persons  are  identical.  They  re-count 
the  money,  seal  it  with  the  official  seal  of  the  three 
offices,  and  for  so  doing  receive,  per  year,  the  gentlemen 
each  eighteen  hundred  dollars,  the  lady  twelve  hundred 
dollars — one  more  illustration  of  the  sort  of  justice  be- 
tween the  work  of  men  and  women,  which  prevails  in 
the  Treasury  service ! 

23 


354  TEN   YEARS  IN   WASHINGTON. 

The  identification  and  restoration  of  defaced  and  mu- 
tilated notes  is  a  very  difficult  and  important  operation. 
From  the  toes  of  stockings,  in  which  they  have  been 
washed  and  dissolved ;  from  the  stomachs  of  animals,  and 
even  of  men ;  from  the  bodies  of  drowned  and  murdered 
human  beings ;  from  the  holes  of  vice  and  of  deadly  dis- 
ease, these  fragments  of  money,  whose  lines  are  often  ut- 
terly obliterated,  whose  tissues  emit  the  foulest  smells, 
come  to  the  Treasury,  and  are  committed  wholly  to  the 
supervision  and  skill  of  women. 

Let  any  just  mind  decide  whether  such  labor  does  not 
deserve  to  be  recognized  and  rewarded  absolutely  on  its 
own  merits.  Such  is  its  acknowleged  value,  that  these 
Government  experts  have  been  allowed  to  go  to  distant 
parts  of  the  country,  to  restore  burnt  money  belonging 
to  Adams'  Express  Company,  because  it  was  known  that 
there  was  no  one  else  in  the  land,  who  could  perform  this 
service. 

The  whole  basement  floor  of  the  north  wing  of  the 
Treasury  is  occupied  by  the  busy  counters  of  mutilated 
money.  Here  sit  one  hundred  and  eighty  women  count- 
ers, restorers  and  detectors.  Side  by  side,  we  see  the  faded 
and  the  blooming  face.  Here  is  the  woman,  worn  and 
weary — born,  more  than  likely,  to  ease  and  luxury — 
thankfully  working  to  support  herself  and  her  children; 
and  at  the  very  next  table,  a  maiden,  whose  fresh  youth, 
care  has  not  yet  worn  out — each  working  with  equal  thank- 
fulness, to  support  herself,  and  besides,  perhaps,  father  and 
mother,  brother,  sister  or  child. 

The  time  of  toil,  for  one  who  must  earn  her  living,  is 
not  long;  indeed,  the  hours  are  fewer  than  the  average 
hours  of  ordinary  labor.  She  does  not  complain  of  them; 


THE   BRUSH-AND-BROOM   BRIGADE.  355 

she  is  grateful  for  her  chance.  Yet  her  working-day 
is  as  long  as  her  brother's.  Her  chance,  alone,  is  less. 
For  the  same  hours  and  the  same  toil,  her  stipend  is  one- 
fourth  smaller  than  his  smallest. 

At  three  o'clock  P.  M.,  hats  and  shawls  come  down  from 
their  pegs,  lunch-baskets  come  forth  from  their  hiding- 
places,  the  great  corridors,  and  porticoes,  and  broad  streets 
are  thronged  with  homeward-wending  workers..  For  the 
space  of  half  an  hour,  the  Treasury-offices  and  halls  seem 
deserted,  and  then — Lo  !  the  Broom  Brigade  !  Cobwebs, 
dust  and  dirt,  no  longer  dim  the  granite  steps,  the  tessel- 
lated floors,  the  marble  surfaces  of  the  Treasury-building, 
as  they  used  to  do,  years  ago.  Congress  has  provided  a 
Broom  Brigade,  with  fifteen  dollars  a  month,  to  pay  each 
member — and  here  they  come,  the  sweepers,  the  dusters 
and  the  scrubbers — ninety  women  ! 

Three  years  ago,  was  established  the  present  efficient 
system  of  daily  cleaning  of  the  Treasury,  exclusively  un- 
der feminine  control,  with  what  perfect  result,  all  who  re* 
member  the  Treasury  as  it  was,  and  see  it  as  it  is,  can  bear 
witness. 

These  ninety  women-workers  are  under  the  exclusive 
control  of  a  lady  custodian.  The  organization,  supervis- 
ion, general  control,  payment,  etc.,  of  this  small  army  of 
sweepers,  brushers  and  scrubbers,  all  devolve  on  her.  She 
is  a  fair  and  stately  woman,  wearing  a  crown  of  snow-white 
hair,  her  soul  looking  out  of  eyes  clear  and  bright,  yet  of 
tender  blue.  Her  face  tells  its  own  story  of  sorrow  out- 
lived, and  of  deep  human  sympathy.  Did  it  tell  any 
other,  she  would  not  be  the  right  woman  in  the  right 
place.  No  woman  who  has  not  suffered,  who  is  not  in 
profound  sympathy  with  every  form  of  human  poverty 


356  TEN  TEAES   IN  WASHINGTON. 

and  want,  could  of  right  reign  over  an  army  of  women 
toilers,  sweeping,  scrubbing  for  bread.  At  4  P.  M.,  each 
day,  ninety  women  enter  a  little  room  on  the  basement 
floor  of  the  Treasury,  there  to  exchange  their  decent 
street  dress  for  the  dusty  garments  of  toil.  As  they  as- 
cend the  broad  stairs  and  disperse — broom,  duster,  or 
scrubbing-brush  in  hand — to  make  the  beautiful  offices 
and  broad  halls  fresh  and  bright  for  the  next  coming  day, 
the  lady  who  guards  and  guides  them  all — who  knows  the 
history  of  each  one — what  stories  she  might  tell ! 

Here  is  a  little  woman  whose  husband  was  killed  in  the 
Union  army,  leaving  her  nothing  but  his  memory,  his 
small  pension,  and  a  pair  of  brave  hands  to  support  her- 
self and  three  little  ones.  Here  are  two  bright  little  col- 
ored girls.  They  are  students  in  Howard's  University, 
and  come  every  day  after  school,  the  long  way  to  the 
Treasury,  to  earn  a  part  of  the  money  which  is  to  insure 
their  education.  Here  is  a  young  woman  whose  keenly 
lined,  sorrowful  face  is  a  history.  "Months  ago  she  came 
to  the  silver-haired  lady  in  the  custodian's  room,  and  asked 
for  work  of  any  kind.  The  possibility  to  grant  her  re- 
quest did  not  then  exist,  and  again  and  again,  with  little 
hope,  she  came.  At  last  she  applied  when  some  necessi- 
tous vacancy  in  the  ranks  of  workers  rendered  it  possible 
for  the  lady  to  assign  her  at  once  to  a  place  of  employ- 
ment ;  and  gladly  she  gave  it,  for  the  petitioner  was  wan 
and  despairing.  After  work  and  the  departure  of  the 
throng,  she  again  sought  the  lady,  to  thank  her  on  her 
knees  'for  saving  her  life.'  She  said,  "I  had  made  up  my 
mind  to  take  my  life  if  you  refused  me ;  I  had  reached  the 
end  of  every  thing.'  Then  followed  the  oft-repeated  story 
— deception,  desertion,  desperation,  and  the  one  last  strug- 


THE   LABOKS    OF   A   THOUSAND   WOMEN.  357 

gle  to  live  " — to  live  honestly  by  honest,  albeit  the  lowliest 
toil. 

•  "Many  a  soldier's  widow,  struggling  with  smallest  for- 
tune, has  occasion  to  be  thankful  for  the  fifteen  dollars 
earned  here  every  month,  although  the  walk  and  work  seem 
insufferable  at  times.  Many  a  soldier's  orphan  is  sustained 
by  the  stroke  of  brush  and  broom,  making  hall  and  stair 
and  wall  brightly  clean  to  the  step  and  sight  of  coming  vis- 
itors from  far  and  near,  and  the  same  shining  polish  which 
some  strangers  may  admire,  on  the  perspected  marble 
floors  and  wrought  pilasters,  is  a  source  and  means  of 
maintenance  to  humble  homes  when  a  death,  desertion, 
and  (0  !  sadly  often)  drunkenness  has  removed  the  head 
and  protector,  and  in  which  life  means  only  toil  and  sor- 
row. Every  one  of  these  ninety  women  has  her  own  story 
of  trouble,  and  want,  and  endurance,  which  made  up  her 
past,  and  won  for  her,  her  niche  in  this  scheme  of  labor." 
Near  a  thousand  women,  from  the  toilers  of  the  tubs  un- 
iler  its  roof,  to  the  Brush-and-Broom  Brigade  in  its  base- 
ment, are  employed  in  the  Treasury.  Their  labor  ranges 
from  the  lowliest  manual  toil,  to  the  highest  intellectual 
employment.  In  the  social  scale  they  measure  the  entire 
gamut  of  society.  In  isolated  instances,  women  of  excep- 
tional character  may  still  hold  positions  in  the  Treasury, 
and  in  so  large  a  number,  and  under  an  unjust  system  of 
appointment,  it  would  be  strange  if  no  such  case  could  be 
found.  But  so  powerful  is  the  public  sentiment  roused 
against  such  appointments,  it  is  impossible  that  they 
should  be  longer  permitted,  if  known.  The  deepest 
wrong  which  their  presence  ever  inflicted,  was  the  un- 
just suspicion  which  they  brought  upon  a  large  body  of 
intelligent,  pure  women.  The  truth  is,  there  is  not  an- 


358  TEN   YEAES    IN   WASHINGTON. 

other  company  of  women-workers  in  the  land  which  num- 
bers so  many  ladies  of  high  character,  intelligence,  culture, 
and  social  position. 

The  country  is  not  aware  to  what  an  extent  its  most 
noble  public  servants  have  died  poor,  nor  how  many  of 
their  wives  and  daughters  have  sought  the  Government 
Civil  Service  as  the  means  of  honorable  self-support. 

Until  within  a  short  time,  when  the  friends  of  their 
father  raised  a  fund  for  their  support,  the  daughters  of 
Chief -Justice  Taney  were  employed  in  the  Treasury.  The 
fair  young  orphan  daughter  of  Robert  J.  Walker,  once  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury,  now  supports  herself  by  service  in 
the  Internal  Revenue.  Governor  Fair  child,  of  Wisconsin, 
found  his  beautiful  wife,  the  daughter  of  a  distinguished 
public  man,  occupying  a  desk  in  the  Treasury.  Mrs. 
Mary  Johnson,  daughter  of  Colonel  Albert,  who  for  a  long 
series  of  years  was  head  of  the  Topographical  Bureau,  has 
been  for  ten  years  a  clerk  in  the  Treasury.  Her  husband 
was  Consul  at  Florence,  where  he  died.  Her  father  pass- 
ing away  soon  after,  she  found  herself  alone,  with  two 
young  sons  to  rear  and  educate.  She  became  a  Govern- 
ment clerk,  or,  as  that  title  is  now  officially  denied 
to  a  woman,  "a  Government  employe"  Her  sons  are 
growing  up  to  honor  her,  one  having  entered  the  Naval 
School  at  Annapolis.  Mrs.  Tilton,  sister  of  General  Rob- 
ert Ould,  is  an  "employe"  in  the  Internal  Revenue.  The 
widow  of  Captain  Ringgold  is  also  there. 

The  Quarter-master-General's  Office,  which  is  a  division 
of  the  War  Department,  has  been  almost  exclusively  set 
apart  for  the  widows,  daughters,  and  sisters  of  officers  of 
army  or  navy,  killed  or  injured  in  the  war.  Almost  with- 
out exception,  the  "employes"  of  this  office  are  gentle- 


LADY-WRITEES   AND   THEIR   LABORS.  359 

women.  It  is  filled  with  elegant  and  accomplished  women, 
some  of  whom  are  remarkable  for  their  literary  and  sci- 
entific attainments.  These  ladies  now  occupy  offices  pro- 
vided in  a  plain  building  on  Fifteenth  street.  Their  rooms 
are  smaller  and  much  more  private  than  those  of  the 
^Treasury  opposite.  Their  work  is  the  copying,  recording, 
and  registering  of  the  letters  of  the  department.  No  men 
are  employed  in  these  offices.  Their  superintendent  is  a 
lady,  who  has  entire  supervision  of  the  ladies  and  the  labor 
of  this  division.  She  is  the  widow  of  a  naval  officer  who 
died  in  the  service,  a  descendant  of  Benjamin  Franklin, 
and  occupies  now,  as  she'  has  all  her  life,  the  highest  social 
position.  She  has  children  to  support,  and  carries  heavy  of- 
ficial responsibilities- — her  duties  are  identical  with  those 
of  the  head  of  any  other  bureau — she  receives  only  the 
stipend  of  the  lowest  male  clerk,  twelve  hundred  dollars. 
Elizabeth  Akers  Allen  (Florence  Percy),  whose  deep  and 
tender  lyrics  call  forth  such  universal  response,  held  a  po- 
sition in  this  office  until  her  last  marriage. 

Women  of  education  and  the  finest  intellectual  gifts  are 
to  be  found  in  every  department.  No  inconsiderable  num- 
ber attempt  to  bring  their  meagre  nine  hundred  dollar 
salary  up  to  the  most  ignorant  man  employe  s  twelve  hun- 
dred, by  writing  for  the  press,  or  pursuing  some  artistic 
employment  outside  of  office  hours. 

The  Treasury  boasts  of  a  number  of  more  than  ordi- 
nary women  correspondents,  whose  letters  have  attracted 
wide  attention  by  the  really  important  information  which 
they  have  imparted,  concerning  internal  workings  of  De- 
partmental life  and  service.  Foremost  among  these,  is 
Miss  Austine  Snead  (Miss  Grundy,  of  the  New  York 
World).  Miss  Snead  is  the  only  and  fatherless  daughter 


360  TEN  TEAKS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

of  an  accomplished  gentleman.  She  is  a  "Class-child" 
of  Harvard  College,  a  loyal  Kentuckian  whom,  with  her 
youthful  and  lovely  mother,  the  vicissitudes  of  war  drifted 
to  the  one  work-shop  of  the  Nation  open  to  women.  The 
loss  of  her  position,  by  change  of  administration,  forced 
her  to  turn  to  the  chance  of  journalism,  and  in  the  branch 
of  the  profession  which  she  entered,  she  rose  at  once  to 
the  foremost  rank.  Mrs.  Snead,  formerly  a  famous  belle 
of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  is  one  of  the  most  patient,  faith- 
ful, and  accurate  counters  in  the  redemption  division  of 
the  Treasury,  and  is  beside,  weekly  correspondent  of  the 
Louisville  Courier  Journal.  Both  are  women  who  wear 
industry,  integrity,  and  honor  as  their  jewels,  far  dearer 
to  them  than  all  the  lost  treasures  of  Fortune's  more 
prosperous  days. 

The  Internal  Revenue  Bureau,  a  branch  of  the  Treas- 
ury Service,  and  occupying  beautiful  apartments  in  the 
Treasury  Building,  employs  a  large  number  of  women. 
Copying,  recording,  filing  of  letters,  and  keeping  accounts, 
make  the  chief  work  of  this  division.  It  demands  a  high 
order  of  clerical  ability,  and  the  books  kept  by  these 
ladies  are  marvels  of  mechanical  beauty. 

The  complications  and  immensity  of  the  Internal  Rev- 
enue Service,  make  this  one  of  the  busiest  offices  in  the 
entire  Department.  It  contains  from  forty-five  to  fifty 
women — employes.  Beside  those  who  execute  the  ex- 
quisite copper-plate  copying,  there  are  many  whose  whole 
duty  is  "head  work."  This  consists  of  examining,  sort- 
ing, and  filing  the  different  daily  communications  received 
at  the  office.  These  are  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  varieties, 
concerning  internal  revenue,  taxes,  etc.,  subjects  usually 
supposed  not  to  be  particularly  lucid  to  the  average  fern- 


HOW  WOMAN'S  WORK  is  PAID.  361 

inine  mind.  Many  are  employed  in  examining,  approv- 
ing, and  recording  reports  of  surveys  of  distilleries,  an^ 
other  important  papers ;  and  such  is  the  estimate  placed 
on  their  business  capacity,  as  thus  applied,  that  their 
opinions  on  the  papers  are  accepted  without  question. 

At  one  of  these  desks  sits  a  lovely  sylph-like  creature, 
whose  bird-like  hands  always  reminds  me  of  Charlotte 
Bronte's.  She  is  scarcely  bigger  than  the  two  big  books 
which  she  handles  and  "keeps" — and  to  see  her  at  them, 
perched  upon  a  high  stool,  is  "  a  sight."  Born  and  reared 
in  affluence,  fragile  in  constitution,  and  exquisitely  sensi- 
tive in  organism,  she  is  yet  intellectually  one  of  the  best 
clerks — no  "employes"  in  the  Bureau.  Years  ago,  she 
was  placed  at  this  eighteen  hundred  dollar  desk,  which  a 
man-clerk  had  just  vacated.  She  has  filled  it,  perform- 
ing its  duties  for  seven  or  eight  years,  for  the  woman's 
stipend  of  nine  hundred  dollars.  When  the  new  Civil 
Service  Rules  first  went  into  operation,  she  was  awarded 
twelve  hundred  dollars  per  annum,  for  her  service  from 
that  date.  To  have  awarded  her  the  remaining  six  hun- 
dred dollars,  which  was  paid  the  man  at  the  same  desk, 
for  doing  the  same  work,  would  have  been  an  equality  of 
justice,  from  which  the  average  official  masculine  mind 
instinctively  recoiled. 

Apropos  of  the  preponderance  of  favor  with  which 
this  same  official  masculine  mind  is  able  to  regard  and 
reward  itself,  is  the  case  of  a  lady  in  another  division. 
She  has  mathematical  genius,  and  is  one  of  the  best  prac- 
tical mathematicians  in  the  Treasury  Department.  Many 
of  the  statistical  tables,  for  reports  to  Congress,  are  made 
out  by  her.  Members  of  Congress,  on  the  most  import- 
ant committees,  do  not  disdain  to  come  to  her  for  assist- 


362  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

ance  in  making  out  their  reports.  Near  two  years  ago,  a 
•man-clerk,  in  the  same  room  with  this  lady,  (who  received 
his  appointment  through  political  favoritism,)  became  so 
dissipated,  that  he  was  totally  unfitted  to  fulfil  the  duties 
of  his  desk,  and  he  was  carried  by  his  friends  to  an  ine- 
briate asylum.  Since  that  time,  this  lady,  in  addition  to 
the  arduous  duties  of  her  own  desk,  has  performed  all  the 
labor  accruing  to  that  of  the  absent  inebriate.  She  whose 
official  existence  as  a  clerk  is  denied  by  the  legislators 
who  employ  her,  has  performed  steadily,  for  many  months, 
the  labor  of  two  men-clerks.  How  much  does  she  re- 
ceive for  so  doing?  Nine  hundred  dollars  a  year.  The 
eighteen  hundred  dollars,  which  she  earns  at  one  desk,  ia 
paid  to  the  drunkard  in  whose  name  she  earns  it  ! 

The  Government,  who  support  this  man  for  being  a 
drunkard,  forces  a  woman  to  do  his  work  for  nothing,  or 
lose  the  chance  of  earning  the  pittance  paid  to  her  in  her 
own  name.  This  lady,  broken  in  health  by  her  long-con- 
tinued and  overtaxing  toil,  sees  what  before  her  ?  Surely 
not  recognition  or  justice  from  the  Government  which 
she  serves  and  honors,  while  it,  through  selfishness  and 
injustice,  disgraces  itself. 

Of  the  forty-five  ladies  in  the  Internal  Revenue  Bu- 
reau, there  is  but  one,  and  she  fifty  years  of  age,  who 
has  not  more  than  herself  to  support  on  the  pittance 
which  she  is  paid.  Nevertheless,  whenever  a  spasmodic 
cry  of  "retrenchment"  is  raised,  three  women  are  always 
dismissed  from  office,  to  one  man,  although  the  men  so 
greatly  outnumber  the  women,  to  say  nothing  of  their 
being  so  much  more  expensive. 

"One  of  the  greatest  advocates  of  economy  took  work 
from  a  woman  whose  pay  was  the  invariable,  nine  hun- 


MAN    versus   WOMAN.  363 

dred  dollars  per  year,  to  give  it  to  a  man,  who  received 
for  doing  it,  sixteen  hundred  dollars.  No  complaint  was 
made  of  her  manner  of  doing  the  work,  but  the  head  of 
the  division  said  that  she  could  count  money,  and  he  had 
not  enough  work  for  the  men.  Nothing  was  said  of  dis- 
missing the  superfluous  male  clerks.  The  work  given  the 
manly  mind,  in  this  instance,  was  the  entering  of  dates 
of  redemption  opposite  the  numbers  of  redeemed  notes. 
A  child  of  ten  years  could  scarcely  have  blundered  at  it. 
The  same  date  was  written  sometimes  for  two  weeks  at  a 
time." 

The  lady  at  the  head  of  the  woman's  division  of  the 
Internal  Revenue  Bureau,  has  filled  the  position,  with 
marked  efficiency,  for  ten  years,  and  upon  the  adoption 
of  the  new  Civil  Service  Rules,  she  was  authorized  to  re- 
ceive eighteen  hundred  dollars  per  annum. 

The  lady  who  is  oile  of  the  librarians  of  the  library 
of  the  Treasury,  is  an  accomplished  linguist,  a  very  intel- 
lectual woman.  She  was  appointed  by  Mr.  Boutwell,  and 
received  sixteen  hundred  dollars. 

There  are  some  very  important  desks  filled  by  ladies  in 
the  Fifth  Auditor's  office.  Into  their  hands  come  all  con- 
sular reports.  To  fulfil  their  duties  efficiently,  they  must 
possess  a  knowledge  of  banking,  as  well  as  of  mathe- 
matics. 

Before  the  Civil  Service  Rules  were  vetoed,  several 
ladies  competed  in  one,  two,  and  three  examinations. 
Thus  several  won,  by  pure  intellectual  test,  twelve  hun- 
dred dollars,  sixteen  hundred  dollars,  eighteen  hundred 
dollars,  and  one  or  two,  I  believe,  a  twenty-two  hundred 
dollars  position. 

In  the  office  of  the  Comptroller  of  the  Treasury,  are 


364  TEN  TEAKS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

some  very  important  desks  filled  by  ladies.  One  young 
lady  in  this  office  has  charge  of  the  correspondence  with 
the  national  banks  and  engraving  companies.  This  in- 
volves a  complicated  routine.  The  desk  was  formerly 
filled  by  a  man  who  received  fourteen  hundred  dollars. 
It  was  taken  from  him  because  he  was  two  hundred  let- 
ters behind  date.  The  work  which  has  been  in  charge  of 
this  lady  for  six  or  seven  years,  at  nine  hundred  dollars 
per  annum,  is  always  even  with  the  day. 

Another  young  lady,  in  this  office,  prepares  an  abstract 
of  the  circulation  issued  and  returned  by  national  banks, 
by  means  of  which  an  immediate  answer  can  be  given, 
when  information  is  asked,  as  to  the  outstanding  circula- 
tion of  any  particular  bank.  Another  laborious  task,  per- 
formed in  this  office  by  a  lady,  is  the  preparation  of  an 
abstract  of  the  number  of  notes  of  each  denomination 
and  issue,  work  requiring  great  intellectual  exactness 
and  care. 

In  the  Post  Office  Department,  there  are  forty-seven 
Women  who  address  "returned  letters,"  i.  e.}  letters  which 
bave  miscarried,  and  which  are  to  be  returned,  if  the  sig- 
nature, or  anything  inside  the  letter,  gives  a  clue  to  whom 
it  is  to  be  sent.  There  are  ten  women  who  fold  "  dead 
letters,"  and  three  who  translate  foreign  letters. 

The  lady  in  charge  of  the  women  clerks  in  the  Dead 
Letter  Office,  is  the  daughter  of  an  officer  high  in  rank 
in  the  army,  now  dead.  Her  grandfather  was  the  Presi- 
dent of  a  New  England  college.  Mrs.  Pettigru  King, 
whose  father  was  the  Governor  of  South  Carolina,  and 
a  member  of  the  United  States  Senate,  herself  a  woman 
of  remarkable  talents,  was  long  employed  in  the  Dead- 
Letter  Office.  Sitting  among  many  younger  women,  her 


THE    STRUGGLE    OF   LIFE.  365 

hands  flying  as  swift  as  any  of  theirs — the  daily  task,  that 
of  re-directing  two  hundred  letters,  usually  completed  by 
her  before  that  of  any  one  else — we  see  a  fair,  round-faced, 
blue-eyed  woman,  whose  sudden,  bright  glance  and  rapid 
movements  at  once  fix  our  attention.  She  looks  to  be 
about  fifty;  she  is  in  reality  over  seventy  years  of  age. 
She  and  her  history  combined,  probably  make  as  remark- 
able a  fact  as  the  Dead-Letter  Office  contains.  She  is 
the  widow  of  a  clergyman.  When  the  war  broke  out, 
her  only  son  became  hopelessly  insane.  "As  he  could 
not  go  to  the  war,  I  went  myself,"  she  said.  As  the  As- 
sistant-Manager of  the  United  States  Sanitary  Committee 
for  an  entire  State,"  she  raised,  in  money,  ten  thousand 
dollars,  and  collected  and  distributed  ninety  thousand  hos- 
pital articles.  She  was  in  the  field,  in  the  hospital,  and 
travelling  between  certain  large  cities,  till  the  close  of  the 
war.  Just  as  she  finished  her  great  work,  she  fell  and 
broke  one  of  her  limbs.  This  confined  her  to  her  room 
for  six  months.  In  the  meantime,  her  daughter's  hus- 
band died,  leaving  her  with  three  little  children,  and  no 
income.  Soon  after,  the  mother  lost  what  little  she  had, 
and  the  entire  family  were  left  penniless.  After  an  un- 
successful attempt  at  the  widow's  forlorn  hope,  "keeping 
boarders,"  mother  and  daughter  came  to  Washington,  and 
sought  for  positions  in  the  Departments.  "  Friends  tried 
to  dissuade  us,"  said  the  old  lady.  "They  told  us  that 
we  must  not  come  here,  to  mingle  with  such  people  as 
they  thought  were  in  the  Departments.  We  have  not 
seen  them.  I  have  been  three  years  in  the  Post  Office 
Department,  and  my  daughter  in*  the  Treasury,  and  we 
have  met  none  but  respectable  women." 

Three  winters  ago,  by  act  of  Congress,  she  was  allowed 


366  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

to  place  her  insane  son  in  the  Lunatic  Asylum  here,  free 
of  charge,  leaving  her  at  liberty  to  assist  her  daughter  in 
the  support  of  her  young  family.  Notwithstanding  her 
war  services,  and  the  names  of  twenty  prominent  men  in 
her  native  State  attached  to  her  papers,  it  took  her  six 
months  to  obtain,  for  herself  and  daughter,  the  chances  to 
labor  which  she  sought.  "Sorrow  does  not  kill,"  she 
says,  and  as  we  look  into  her  beaming  eyes,  we  say  it 
does  not  even  extinguish  the  brightness  of  a  soul  forever 
young, — and  yet  this  lady,  in  a  few  eventful  years,  "  lived 
through  sorrow  enough  to  break  any  heart  less  stout  than 
hers." 

In  the  Patent  Office,  fifty-two  women  clerks  are  allowed 
by  law.  A  few  women  are  employed  in  copying  Pension 
Rolls  in  the  Pension  Office,  who  have  a  room  provided 
for  them  in  the  Patent  Office.  Ten  or  twelve  women 
have  work  given  them  from  the  Patent  Office,  which  they 
do  at  their  homes.  This  work,  as  well  as  that  done  in 
the  Office,  consists  chiefly  of  the  drawing  of  models. 
Every  model  of  all  the  tens  of  thousands  received  in  the 
Patent  Office,  from  the  beginning  to  the  present  day,  has 
thus  been  re-produced  and  preserved.  Glazed  transpar- 
ent linen  is  placed  over  the  engraved  lines,  and  through 
this,  with  ink  and  stencil,  the  most  intricate  and  exquisite 
lines  are  drawn.  To  do  this  work  perfectly,  a  lady  must 
be  something  of  an  artist  and  draughtswoman.  Magnify- 
ing glasses  are  used,  and  even  with  their  aid,  the  work  is 
most  trying,  and  often  destructive  to  the  eyesight.  The 
salary  fixed  for  this  work  is  ten  hundred  dollars  per  an- 
num. These  .who  take  their  work  home,  and  are  paid  by 
the  piece,  make  as  much  as  those  who  give  the  work  will 
allow.  Here,  of  course,  is  a  large  opportunity  for  favor- 


A   LADY  TAXIDERMIST.  367 

itism  and  injustice.  Thus  favorites  are  often  allowed  to 
do  twice  their  share,  while  others  get  barely  work  enough 
to  subsist. 

The  Agricultural  Department  affords  temporary  em- 
ployment for  numbers  of  women,  for  two  or  three  months 
of  the  year,  and  two  have  permanent  positions  there. 
The  temporary  work  is  the  putting  up  of  seeds  for  uni- 
versal distribution,  and  occasionally  copying  is  given  out. 
Of  the  two  ladies  who  find  constant  employment  there, 
one  is  the  assistant  of  Professor  Glover,  in  taking  charge 
of  the  Museum.  She  is  the  widow  of  a  western  editor, 
and  at  one  time  had  exclusive  control  of  a  public  journal 
(an  agricultural  one,)  herself.  She  is  a  woman  of  large 
intelligence,  a  proficient  in  botany  and  natural  history, 
which  fact  gave  her,  her  present  position,  and  enabled 
her  to  fill  it  with  credit  to  herself.  The  other  lady  em- 
ploye is  a  taxidermist,  who  prepares  the  birds  and  insects 
for  the  Museum.  The  officers  of  this  Department  regard 
her  as  a  proficient  in  her  profession.  She  is  a  German, 
has  been  connected  with  the  Department  over  six  years, 
and  has  a  room  provided  for  her  in  the  beautiful  agricul- 
tural building. 

Woman's  work  in  the  Government  Printing- Office,  re- 
mains yet  to  be  noticed,  but  enough  has  been  mentioned, 
to  prove  its  value  in  other  branches  of  the  Civil  Service. 
It  would  be  strange  if  so  large  a  hive  held  no  drones.  It 
is  doubtless  true,  that  while  many  women  are  not  only 
qualified,  but  actually  perform  the  duties  of  the  highest 
class  desks,  for  an  unjust  pittance,  many  more  do  not 
even  earn  their  nine  hundred  dollars  per  annum.  There 
could  be  no  more  striking  proof  of  the  inequality  and 
injustice  which  prevail  in  our  Civil  Service,  than  the 


368  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

fact  that  such  persons,  men  and  women,  are  appointed 
by  men  in  power,  really  to  be  supported  by  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  receive  from  that  Government,  for  ineffi- 
ciency and  idleness,  all,  and  more,  than  is  paid  often  to 
the  most  intellectual,  the  most  efficient,  the  most  devoted 
of  its  servants. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

WOMEN'S  WORK  IN  THE, TREASURY— HOW  APPOINTMENTS 
ARE  MADE. 

The  Scales  of  Justitia— Where  They  Hang  and  Where  They  Do  Not  Hang 
— The  Difference  Between  Men  and  Women — Reform  a  "  Sham  ! " — The 
First  Women-Ulerks — A  Shameful  and  Disgraceful  Fraud — What  Two 
Women  Did — Cutting  Down  the  Salaries  of  Women — The  First  Wo- 
man-Clerk in  the  Treasury — Taking  Her  Husband's  Place — Working 
"in  Her  Brother's  Name" — A  Matter  of  Expediency — The  Feminine 
Tea-Pot— The  Secretary  Growls  at  the  Tea-Pots— The  Hegira  of  the 
Tea-Pots — Thackeray's  Opinion  of  Nature's  Intentions — Blind  on  One 
Side — In  War  Days — General  Spinner  Visits  Secretary  Chase — "A  Wo- 
man can  Use  Scissors  Better  than  a  Man  " — Profound  Discovery  ! — 
"  She  '11  do  it  Cheaper" — "  Light  Work" — "Recognized" — Besieged  by 
Women — Scenes  of  Distress  and  Trouble — Hundreds  of  Homeless  Wo- 
men— After  the  War — How  the  Appointments  were  Made — Creating  an 
Interest — The  Advantages  of  the  "  Sinners  " — Infamous  Intrigues — The 
Baseness  of  Certain  Senators — Virtue  Spattered  with  Mud — A  Disgrace 
to  the  Nation — Secret  Doings  in  High  Places — New  Civil  Service  Rules — 
Sounding  Magnanimous — Passing  the  Examination — The  Irrepressible 
Masculine  Tyrants— The  New  Rules  a  Perfect  Failure— Up  to  the  Mark, 
but  not  Winning — An  Alarming  Suggestion — Men  versus  Women — Tam- 
pering with  the  Scales — How  Much  a  Woman  Ought  to  be  Paid — Opin- 
ion of  a  Man  in  Power — Interesting  Description  of  an  Average  Repre- 
sentative— "  Keeping  Women  in  Their  Place  " — Getting  up  a  Speech  on 
Women — The  Man  who  Stayed  at  Home — Generosity  of  the  "  Back-Pay  " 
Congress — What  Women  Believe  Ought  to  be  Done. 

ON  the  carved  cornices  which  surmount  windows  and 
mirrors  in  the  spacious  Office  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  may  be  seen,  equally  balanced  above  its 
keys,  the  scales  of  Justitia.     Would  that  they  symbolized 
the  equal  justice  reigning  through  the  minutest  division 
of  the  great  departments  of  the  Government  service. 
24 


370  TEN   TEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

Weighted  with  human  selfishness,  perhaps  this  is  im- 
possible. Majestic  in  aspect,  great  in  magnitude,  in  en- 
ergy and  action,  they  will  never  be  morally  grand  till 
they  are  established  and  perpetuated  in  absolute  equity. 
In  that  hour  the  scales  of  Justitia  will  hang  in  equal  bal- 
ance above  the  head  of  the  masculine  and  feminine 
worker.  Whatever  their  difference,  there  will  be  no  dis- 
parity in  the  equity  which  shall  measure,  weigh  and  re- 
ward equal  toil.  To-day  the  departments  of  Govern- 
ment teem  with  kindness  and  favoritism  to  individual 
women.  What  they  lack  is  justice  to  woman.  This  they 
have  lacked  from  the  beginning.  What  a  comment  on 
human  selfishness  is  the  fact,  that  with  all  the  legislation 
of  successive  Congresses,  the  employment  of  women  in 
the  departments  of  the  Government  is  to-day  as  it  was  in 
the  beginning — perpetuated  in  favoritism  and  injustice. 
Civil  Service  Reform,  as  carried  on,  is  a  mockery  and  a 
sham.  Nowhere  has  its  hollow  pretence  been  so  visible — 
so  keenly  felt — as  in  its  utter  failure  of  simple  justice  to 
the  woman-worker  in  the  public  service. 

From  the  beginning,  when  her  work  has  been  tacitly 
recognized  and  rewarded  as  a  man's,  her  sex  has  been 
proscribed.  The  first  work  given  to  women  from  the 
Government  was  issued  from  the  General  Land  Office,  as 
early,  if  not  earlier,  than  President  Pierce's  administra- 
tion, and  consisted  of  the  copying  of  land  warrants.  This 
work  was  sent  to  their  homes.  They  received  it  in  the 
name  of  some  male  relative,  and  for  that  reason  were  paid 
what  he  would  have  received  for  doing  it,  viz.,  twelve 
hundred  dollars  per  annum.  One  lady  supported  a  worth- 
less husband  (the  nominal  clerk)  and  her  two  children  in 
this  way,  doing  all  his  work  for  him.  Another  supported 


THE    ILL-PAID   LADY-CLERKS.  371 

herself,  her  two  nephews,  and  educated  them  out  of  the 
same  salary. 

During  Mr.  Buchanan's  administration,  this  work  was 
taken  out  of  feminine  hands,  to  a  very  large  extent,  and 
the  few  allowed  to  retain  it  were  paid  only  six  hundred 
dollars.  Somewhere  in  this  era  the  first  woman  clerk  ap- 
peared in  the  Treasury.  She  was  a  wife  who,  during  her 
husband's  illness,  was  allowed  to  take  his  desk  and  to  do 
his  work,  for  his  support  and  their  children's.  This  she 
continued  to  do  until  her  second  marriage ;  but  it  was  in 
her  brother's  name.  She  copied  and  recorded,  did  both 
well,  and  was  paid — not  because  she  did  well,  but  because 
she  did  her  work  in  the  name  of  a  man — sixteen  hundred 
dollars  per  annum.  Thus,-  while  this  lady  performed  the 
work  of  a  man,  and  performed  it  in  his  name,  as  a  woman 
her  presence  at  the  desk  was  a  subterfuge,  and  her  official 
existence  ignored. 

Without  recognition  or  acknowledgment,  the  woman- 
clerk  system  in  the  Treasury  Department  is  an  outgrowth 
of  expediency.  Like  many  another  fact  born  of  the  same 
parentage,  it  soon  proved  its  own  right  to  existence,  and 
refused  to  be  extinguished. 

By  the  time  that  Secretary  McCulloch  made  his  advent, 
the  feminine  tea-pot  had  invaded  every  window-ledge. 
The  Secretary  complained  of  the  accumulation  of  tea- 
pots in  the  Treasury  of  the  nation.  They  vanished,  and 
ceased  to  distill  the  gentle  beverage  for  the  woman-worker 
at  her  noonday  lunch.  "  Nature  meant  kindly  by  wo- 
man when  it  made  her  the  tea-plant,"  Thackeray  says. 
The  presence  of  her  tea-pot  was  made  a  mental  and 
moral  sign,  by  political  philosophers,  that  woman  was  un- 
fit for  Government  service.  Nobody  ever  heard  that  the 


372  TEN  YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

costly  cigars  and  tobacco  which  filled  the  man  clerk's 
"  nooning,"  to  the  exhilaration  of  his  body  and  soul,  was 
a  like  sign  of  his  inability  to  perform  prolonged  service 
without  the  aid  of  stimulants. 

In  war  days,  when  tens  of  thousands  of  men  were 
withdrawn  from  civil  labor,  and  when  one  day's  expense 
to  the  Government  equalled  a  whole  year's  in  the  time  of 
Washington,  General  Spinner  went  to  Secretary  Chase 
and  said :  "A  woman  can  use  scissors  better  than  a  man, 
and  she  will  do  it  cheaper.  I  want  to  employ  women  to 
cut  the  Treasury  notes."  Mr.  Chase  consented,  and  soon 
the  great  rooms  of  the  Treasury  witnessed  the  unwonted 
sight  of  hundreds  of  women,  scissors  in  hand,  cutting  and 
trimming  each  Treasury-note  sheet  into  four  separate 
notes.  This  was  "  light  work ;  "  but  if  anybody  supposes 
it  easy,  let  him  try  it  for  hours  without  stopping,  and  the 
exquisite  pain  in  his  shoulder-joints  and  the  blisters  on  his 
fingers  will  bear  aching  witness  to  his  mistake. 

Washington  was  full  of  needy  women,  of  women  whom 
the  exigencies  of  war  had  suddenly  bereft  of  protection 
and  home.  In  her  appointment  at  that  hour,  political  dif- 
ferences went  for  nothing.  Every  poor  woman  who  ap- 
plied to  the  good  General  was  given  work  if  he  had  it. 
A  pair  of  scissors  were  placed  in  her  hands,  and  she  was 
told  to  go  at  it.  She  had  no  official  appointment  or  ex- 
istence. During  1862,  these  women  were  paid  six  hun- 
dred dollars  per  annum  out  of  the  fund  provided  by  Con- 
gress for  temporary  clerks.  A  year  or  two  later  the 
working  existence  of  these  women  was  recognized  in  the 
annual  appropriation  bills. 

After  that  it  did  not  take  long  to  spread  through  the 
land  that  the  Government  Departments  in  Washington 


THE  DEPARTMENTS  DURING  THE  WAR.      373 

offered  work'to  women.  The  land  was  full — fuller  than 
ever  before  of  women  who  needed  work  to  live.  Ne- 
cessity, exaggeration,  romance  and  sorrow,  combined  as 
propelling  motives,  and  the  Capital  was  soon  overrun 
with  women  seeking  Government  employment.  Then, 
more  conspicuously  than  to-day,  the  supply  far  ex- 
ceeded the  demand.  The  disappointment,  the  suffering, 
the  sin  which  grew  out  of  this  fact,  can  never  be  meas- 
ured. 

The  war  had  torn  the  whole  social  fabric  like  an  earth- 
quake. Society  seemed  upheaved  from  its  foundations — 
shattered,  and  scattered  in  chaos.  Nowhere  was  this  so 
apparent  as  in  Washington.  Women  seeking  their  hus- 
bands ;  women,  whose  husbands  were  dead,  left  penniless 
with  dependent  children.  Young  girls,  orphaned  and 
homeless,  with  women  adventurers  of  every  phase  and 
sort,  all,  sooner  or  later,  found  their  way  to  Washington. 
The  male  population  was  scarcely  less  chaotic.  Men,  re- 
strained and  harmonized  through  life  by  the  holiest  influ- 
ences of  home,  found  themselves  suddenly  homeless, 
herded  together  in  masses,  exposed  to  hardships,  danger 
and  undreamed-of  temptations.  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink, 
for  to-morrow  we  die,"  seemed  to  be  blazoned  on  the 
painted  sign-boards  of  the  dens  of  drink  and  sin,  and  on 
the  debauched  and  brazen  faces  of  the  stranger  men  and 
women  who  jostled  each  other  on  the  crowded  thorough- 
fares. 

While  thousands  escaped  unharmed  the  moral  pestilence 
which  brooded  in  the  air,  tens  of  thousands  more  were 
touched  with  its  blight,  and  fell.  Men  and  women  who 
would  have  lived  and  died  innocent,  in  the  safe  shelter  of 
peace  and  home,  grew  demoralized  and  desperate  amid  the 


374  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

rack  and  ruin  of  war.  In  the  hour  when  human  nature 
needed  every  sacred  safeguard,  it  found  itself  bereft  of 
the  sweetest  and  best  that  it  had  ever  known.  This  waa 
especially  true  of  the  hundreds  of  homeless  women  in  the 
Capital  seeking  employment.  Congressional  appropriations 
made  woman's  Government-employment  at  once  a  Con- 
gressional reward.  Very  soon,  every  woman's  appoint- 
ment to  work  was  at  the  mercy  of  some  Member  of  Con- 
gress. Political  or  war-service  might  secure  a  man  his,  but 
what  had  the  woman  but  her  bereavements,  or  her  personal 
influence  ?  For  the  sake  of  the  former,  noble  men,  in  many 
instances,  sought  and  found  honest  employment  for  noble 
women,  for  women  who  had  given  their  husbands,  sons 
and  fathers,  their  own  heart's  blood,  to  their  country, 
asking  nothing  in  return  but  the  chance  to  work  for  their 
own  bread  and  their  children's. 

In  order  to  secure  any  Government  position,  the  first 
thing  a  woman  had  to  do  was  to  go  and  tell  her  story  to 
a  man — in  all  probability  a  stranger — who  possessed  the 
appointing  power,  her  chance  of  getting  her  place  depend- 
ing utterly  on  the  personal  interest  which  she  might  be 
able  to  arouse  in  him.  If  he  was  sufficiently  interested 
in  her  story,  and  in  her,  to  make  the  official  demand  nec- 
essary, she  obtained  the  coveted  place,  no  matter  what 
her  qualifications  for  it,  or  her  lack  of  them  might  be.  If 
she  failed  to  interest  him,  by  no  possibility  could  she  se- 
cure that  place,  unless  she  could  succeed  in  winning  over 
to  her  cause  another  man  of  equal  political  power.  If 
the  men  who  held  her  chance  for  bread  were  good  men, 
and  she  a  good  woman,  well ;  if  they  were  bad  men,  and 
she  a  weak  woman,  not  so  well.  In  either  case,  the  pri»' 
ciple  underlying  the  appointment  was  equally  wrong. 


SECRET   DEEDS    OF   MODEL    CONGRESSMEN.  375 

It  was  this  unjust  mode  of  appointment  which,  in  so 
many  instances,  especially  through  the  years  of  the  war, 
placed  side  by  side,  with  pure  and  noble  women,  the 
women-adventurers  and  sinners,  whose  presence  cast  so 
much  undeserved  reproach  upon  the  innocent,  and  who 
caused  the  only  shadow  of  disrepute  which  has  ever  fallen 
upon  woman's  Treasury-service.  Even  in  the  worst  days 
this  class  formed  the  exceptions  to  a  host  of  honorable 
and  noble  women,  and  yet  the  shameful  fact  cannot  be 
wiped  out  that  men,  high  in  political  power,  because  they 
had  that  power,  made  womanly  virtue  its  price,  and  were 
meanly  base  enough  to  use  the  Civil  Service  of  their 
country  to  pay  for  their  own  disgraceful  sins.  Because 
this  was  possible,  pure  women,  working  day  by  day  to  sup- 
port themselves  and  their  children,  were  covered  with  the 
shadow  of  unjust  suspicion,  while  women,  unworthy  and 
profligate,  were  allowed  the  same  positions,  with  equal 
honor  and  equal  pay. 

There  could  be  no  greater  moral  injustice  to  woman 
than  to  place  her  employment  under  the  Government  on 
such  a  basis.  It  put  the  best  under  ban,  while  it  drew 
those  whose  steps  pointed  downward  swiftly  along  the  in- 
evitable descent.  There  was  but  one  redress  that  the 
State  could  offer  to  its  daughters,  that  of  making  their 
chance  equal  to  that  of  its  sons.  Then,  if  they  failed,  the 
failure  would  be  their  own ;  if  they  succeeded,  they  would 
not  be  defrauded  by  the  Government  they  served. 

The  new  Civil-Service  Rules,  whatever  their  impracti- 
cability in  other  ways,  seemed  to  offer  to  the  women- 
workers  of  the  Government  this  redress.  If  education 
and  fitness  were  to  be  made  the  standard  of  Departmental 
Service,  alike  for  women  as  men,  then  the  reign  of  favor- 


376  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

itism  and  might  must  end.  An  idle  woman,  the  pet  of 
some  man  in  power,  would  no  longer  receive  all  that  was 
paid  a  woman  filling  the  desks  of  two  men.  The  woman 
who  had  proved,  by  years  of  efficient  service  at  a  man's 
desk,  that  she  was  more  than  equal  to  the  performing  of 
his  duties,  would  cease  to  receive  for  doing  them  the  pit- 
tance of  the  veriest  idler  in  the  lobbies,  and  no  more. 

It  sounded  well ;  magnanimous  men  and  true  women, 
yearning  only  for  justice,  and  that  it  might  be  earned  and 
won  without  ado,  took  heart.  Educated  women  from 
North  and  South,  East  and  West,  flocked  to  the  Capital 
to  compete  in  impartial  intellectual  examination  with 
men.  Many  of  these  were  teachers — all  women  to  whom 
self-support,  or  the  support  of  others,  were  indispensable. 
The  number  of  women  who  have  passed  the  highest  com- 
petitive examinations,  is  remarkable.  Their  life-long  pur- 
suits and  intellectual  training  made  it  impossible  that, 
in  this  regard,  they  should  prove  second  to  men.  The 
number  so  great,  that  all  could  receive  appointments  was 
not  probable. 

In  the  face  of  so  many  new  professions  of  equality  of 
chance  in  the  public  service  for  women,  the  astonishing 
fact  is,  that  while  women  pass  the  highest  examinations 
with  honor,  it  is  men,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  who 
pass  into  the  highest  places.  With  a  mocking  outcry  of 
"justice  and  equality,"  uttered  to  appease  the  universal 
demand,  selfishness  and  might  still  prevail  in  all  depart- 
mental appointments.  Political  and  personal  influence 
appoint  women  to-day,  just  as  they  did  before  one  woman 
was  summoned  to  compete  in  intellectual  examination 
with  men. 

"You  were  fools   to   expect  a  twelve-hundred-dollar 


AFKAID   OF   WOMEN   COMPETITORS.  377 

clerkship  because  you  passed  the  examination  of  that 
class,"  said  a  high  appointing  officer  of  the  Treasury  to 
two  ladies,  one  who  had  come  from  a  far  Western,  the 
other  from  a  far  Eastern  State.  Both  ladies  passed  the 
highest  competitive  examination — both,  after  months  of 
wearing  anxiety  and  struggle,  with  the  wolf  at  the  door, 
received — a  nine-hundred-dollar  clerkship.  Did  they  re- 
ceive even  that  on  the  high  merit  of  their  competitive 
examination?  Not  at  all;  had  their  appointment  de- 
pended on  that,  they  would  not  have  received  one  at  all. 
Sick  and  worn  out,  they  received  it  at  last  on  the  special 
plea  of  two  men  in  office,  each  having  political  power  in 
his  respective  State. 

With  such  results,  I  ask,  what  is  a  competitive  exami- 
nation to  women  but  a  shame  to  the  power  that  treacher- 
ously offers  it  ?  The  man  who  passes  such  an  examina- 
tion cannot  receive  less  than  a  twelve-hundred-dollar 
clerkship ;  the  woman  who  passes  triumphantly  the  se- 
verest intellectual  test  offered  by  the  Government,  cannot 
receive  more  than  a  nine-hundred-dollar  position.  Why  ? 
So  many  women  came  to  Washington  and  proved,  by 
actual  mental  examination,  that  they  were  fully  competent 
to  fill  the  highest  civil  offices  in  the  departments,  its 
officials  became  alarmed.  "  Taken  on  their  attainments, 
they  will  push  out  the  men,"  they  exclaimed,  in  alarm. 
Then  straightway  they  fell  back,  as  men  in  power  always 
do,  to  carry  their  own  ends  on  unjust  legislation.  They 
based  their  decision  on  the  Act  of  Congress  of  four  years 
ago,  which  fixed  the  salary  of  all  women  employed  in  the 
Government  Departments  at  nine  hundred  dollars  per 
annum. 

The  result  of  all  the  loud  hypocritical  outcry  of  civil 


378  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

equality  to  women  is,  that  hereafter,  no  matter  how  high 
the  competitive  examination  which  she  passes,  no  matter 
what  the  services  which  she  renders,  no  woman  is  to  re- 
ceive more  than  nine  hundred  dollars  per  year  for  any 
appointment  received  after  a  certain  date ;  and  no  man, 
no  matter  how  low  the  labor  which  he  performs,  be  it  only 
as  a  messenger  to  run  through  the  halls,  is  to  receive  less 
than  twelve  hundred  dollars  per  annum. 

Cast  down  your  scales,  0,  Justitia,  let  them  shiver  to 
atoms  on  its  marble  floor  for  hanging  in  equal  balance 
above  the  keys  of  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States. 
They  are  a  mocking  lie.  Beneath  these  desecrated  sym- 
bols sits  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  to  him  a  few 
shrinking,  yet  daring,  women  have  appealed.  "Four 
hundred  dollars  a  year  is  enough  for  any  woman  to  be 
paid  for  her  work,"  replies  this  accidental  potentate,  borne 
from  obscurity  to  power  solely  by  the  "  boosting  "  of  a 
friend,  who  lifted  him  from  his  unthought-of  "  bench  "  in 
Massachusetts,  with  no  guarantee  of  fitness  from  his  past, 
to  the  chiefship  of  the  Treasury  of  the  Nation.  "  Four 
.hundred  dollars  is  enough  for  any  woman  to  receive  for 
her  work,  and  more  than  she  could  earn  anywhere  else," 
replies  this  man. 

This  one  remark,  pitted  against  the  facts  recorded  in 
this  chapter,  proved  the  man  who  made  it  as  too  narrow- 
minded  and  unjust,  too  pervaded  with  the  caste  and  self- 
ishness of  sex,  to  be  fit  to  hold  the  appointing  power 
over  hundreds  of  women,  in  culture  and  intellectually 
more  than  his  peers.  No  man  whose  spring  of  action  is 
"  might  is  right "  has  a  right  to  rule. 

To-day  nothing  could  be  more  humiliating  to  a  high- 
spirited,  intelligent,  honorable  woman,  than  to  sit  in  the 


WOMAN'S  WORK  AND  WAGES.  379 

gallery  of  the  Hall  of  Representatives  and  be  compelled 
to  listen  to  a  debate  on  woman's  work  and  wages  going  on 
below.  Yet  if  she  never  heard  the  words  uttered  by  men 
who  claim  to  be  the  representatives  of  the  people,  and  who 
make  the  laws  which  define  her  rights  and  decide  her 
rewards,  she  could  never  realize  how  selfish,  ungenerous, 
and  unjust  is  the  average  man  who  assumes  to  represent 
woman,  and  to  legislate  for  her  welfare.  These  men,  on 
the  average,  are  fairly  good  husbands  and  indulgent 
fathers.  They  are  anything  but  tyrants,  personally,  to 
the  women  of  their  families.  But  their  personal  relations 
do  not  prevent  them  from  placing  a  very  low  estimate 
upon  the  powers,  performance,  place  and  •  prospects  of 
women  in  general.  Their  caste  of  sex  infiltrates  through 
every  word  they  utter. 

The  man  who  is  "  bound  to  keep  woman  in  her  place," 
before  he  makes  a  speech  to  that  effect,  rushes  into  the 
Congressional  Library,  and  asks  Mr.  Spofford  to  give  him 
every  book  which  will  help  him  to  prove  that  woman  is  a 
weak  and  inefficient  creature.  He  then  proceeds  to 
"  cram  "  himself  with  a  crude  mass  of  statements,  which 
he  extracts  pell-mell  out  of  a  heap  of  books.  This  un- 
assimilated  and  impracticable  load  he  delivers,  a  few  days 
later,  to  Congress,  to  the  galleries,  and  to  the  Globe, — to 
prove  that — no  matter  what  her  qualities  or  qualifications, 
moral  or  mental — being  a  woman,  for  that  fact  alone,  she 
must  not  be  a  clerk,  but  an  "employe ;"  and  no  matter 
what  she  has  done  or  is  capable  of  doing  in  the  service  of 
the  Government,  for  that  service  she  must  receive  but 
nine  hundred  dollars,  and  the  sum  be  fixed  by  law. 

There  are  honorable  exceptions — a  few  men  in  Congress 
who,  in  the  broadest  and  best  sense,  are  the  friends  of 


380  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

woman.  They  form  a  small  minority.  The  majority, 
after  having  made  woman's  very  existence  as  a  Govern- 
ment-worker to  depend  on  their  own  personal  favoritism 
or  caprice,  stand  up  in  Congress  and  cast  stones  at  the 
very  class  which  they  have  themselves  created.  In  nine 
cases  out  of  ten,  these  men  staid  at  home  while  others 
fought  their  country's  battles.  And  now  they  reward 
the  widows  and  orphans  of  soldiers  and  sailors  by  giving 
them  a  reluctant  chance  to  earn  their  bread  on  half-pay. 
They  do  it  under  sufferance,  while  these  legislators  with- 
hold just  remuneration,  sneer  at  their  work,  and  defame 
their  characters. 

The  Forty-second  Congress,  which,  in  its  most  hurried 
moments,  could  take  time  to  vote  to  its  members  an  in- 
crease of  salary  from  five  thousand  to  eight  thousand  a 
year,  rejected  without  debate  a  proposition  to  give  women- 
clerks  in  the  departments  equal  compensation  with  men, 
for  the  same  labor.  What  added  proof  is  required  to 
show  that  the  law-making  power  of  our  land  is  fast  be- 
coming a  monied  monopoly — a  legislature  for  the  rich — 
an  ignorer  of  the  poor.  "  Eight  thousand  dollars  every 
twelve  months,  by  dint  of  close  economy,  will  keep  my 
wife  and  daughters  in  silks  and  velvets ;  will  give  them  a 
phaeton  by  the  sea,  and  make  beautiful  their  paths  upon 
the  mountain  tops!  What  to  me  are  the  wives  and 
daughters  of  the  poor  ?  What  care  of  mine  the  widows 
and  orphans  of  men  who  perished  in  their  country's  ser- 
vice, if  they  do  support  themselves  and  their  children  by 
working  for  this  just  Government,  which  I  help  to  make, 
for  nine  hundred  dollars  a  year !  while  I  pay  at  least 
twelve  hundred  to  the  laziest  masculine  lout  who  dawdles 
with  papers  across  the  Treasury  floors  ?  " 


LEGISLATING   FOR  WOMEN.  381 

Yet  there  was  scarely  a  Member  of  that  Congress  that 
would  not  repel  with  jest  or  sneer  the  mere  mention  of 
woman's  demand,  in  the  face  of  such  injustice,  to  legislate 
for  herself.  If  you  would  avert  this  catastrophe,  gentle- 
men, show  that  you  are  capable  of  just  legislation ;  prove 
that  the  power  of  franchise  does  not  always  beget  oppres- 
sion to  the  disfranchised.  I  point  to  the  practical  working 
of  the  new  Civil-Service  Rules,  to  your  own  greedy  grasp 
of  additional  thousands,  with  the  refusal  to  grant  three 
meagre  hundreds  to  working  women,  to  prove  that  woman 
has  no  hope  of  justice  in  man's  representation.  Repre- 
sent her  interests  with  half  the  eager  avidity  which  marks 
your  devotion  to  your  own,  and  she  will  never  ask  to  rep- 
resent herself.  But  no  matter  what  her  individual  dis- 
taste to  public  responsibility,  nothing  is  more  apparent  to 
the  wide-visioned,  thoughtful  woman  than  that,  in  a  re- 
public, the  only  possibility  of  obtaining  personal  justice 
lies  in  political  equality. 


CHAPTER    XXXVI. 

GOVERNMENT  OFFICIAL  LIFE—  HOW  PLACE  AND    POWER  ARE 
WON. 

Government  Official  Life  —  Its  Effects  on  Human  Nature  —  Keeping  his  Eye 
Open—  The  Sweet  and  Winning  Ways  of  Mr.  Parasite—  In  Office—  The 
Fault  of  "  the  People"  and  "my  Friends"  —  Shrinking  from  Responsi- 
bilities —  Pulling  the  Wool  over  the  Eyes  of  the  Innocent  —  Writing  Let- 
ters in  a  Big  Way—  The  "Dark  Ways"  of  Wicked  Mr.  P  —  —A 
Suspicious  Yearning  for  Private  Life  —  The  Sweets  of  Office  —  A  Little 
Change  of  Opinion—  A  Man  Afflicted  with  Too  Many  Friends—  Forgetting 
Things  that  Were  —  John  Jones  is  not  Encouraged  —  Post-offices  as  Plenti- 
ful as  Blackberries  —  Receiving  Office-seekers  —  "  The  Worst  Thing  in  the 
World  for  You  "—Dismissing  John—  Over-crowded  Pastures—  John's  Own 
Private  Opinion  —  The  "Mighty  Messenger"  —  Government-Servants  — 
Peculiar  Impartiality  of  the  Man  in  Office—  What  the  Successful  Man  Said 
—  I  Change  My  Opinion  of  Him  —  A  Certain  Kind  of  Man,  and  Where  He 
can  be  Found. 


OVERNMENTAL  official  life  has  one  effect  upon 
"  those  whom  it  benefits,  which  is  anything  but  cred- 
itable to  human  nature. 

Mr.  Parasite  wants  a  high  place  in  the  governmental 
service,  and  circumstances  favor  his  getting  it.  While 
there  is  any  doubt  about  it,  he  does  not  disdain  to  use 
any  influence  within  his  reach  to  make  it  certain.  How 
lovely  he  is  to  everybody  whose  good  word  or  ill  word 
may  "  tell  "  for  or  against  him.  How  affable  he  is  to 
every  mortal,  from  the  lowliest  outspoken  man  in  his 
home  town,  to  the  influential  writer,  whose  powerful  pen 
he  wishes  to  propitiate.  Mr.  Parasite  glides  into  his  place 


THK  LOBBY  OF  THE  SENATE. 
INSIDE  TUB  CAPITOL.— WASHINGTON. 


MK.    PARASITE   IN   OFFICE.  383 

with  grace  and  resignation.  "The  people,  the  people, 
you  know,  and  my  friends — they  forced  it  upon  me.  They 
quite  overrate  my  fitness,  quite.  I  shrink  from  such  re- 
sponsibilities, such  arduous  labors;  but,  if  my  country 
needs  me,  if  my  constituents  demand  my  services,  I  feel 
that  I  have  no  right  to  refuse,  no  right  to  consult  my 
personal  ease,  although  the  desire  of  my  heart  is  for  the 
peaceful  quiet  of  private  life." 

Strange  to  tell,  when  an  accommodating  people  are 
about  to  grant  him  the  desire  of  his  heart,  Mr.  Parasite 
suddenly  starts  up  alert,  and  touches  the  springs  of  a  most 
powerful  enginery.  He  writes  personal  letters  by  thou- 
sands ;  he  has  his  friends — i.  e.  agents — at  work  for  him 
everywhere,  whispering  with  this  one,  arguing  with  that 
one,  and  urging  his  claims  incessantly  upon  the  appoint- 
ing power.  But  who,  that  did  not  know  it,  could  be- 
lieve it. 

Chance  to  light  upon  Mr.  Parasite  about  this  time, 
and  mention  the  subject  of  his  possible  appointment  or 
election  to  him  as  one  in  which  he  is  naturally  interested. 
Lo !  amid  all  others,  Mr.  Parasite  alone  is  indifferent. 
"  Of  course,  it  would  be  a  compliment,  a  re-election  or 
re-appointment.  He  would  prize  it  much  as  a  mark  of 
confidence  from  the  people,  or  the  Government ;  but 
really,  so  far  as  personal  desires  go,  private  life." 

Private  life  still  fills  the  measure  of  his  yearning. 
"  Retirement "  is  still  the  goal  of  his  desire.  This  is  but 
the  weakness ;  the  crime  of  Mr.  Parasite  is  revealed 
further  on.  The  long  suspense  over,  safely  ensconced  in 
that  official  chair,  while  its  cushions  are  a  new  delight,  its 
honors  are  fresh,  its  powers  unwonted,  perhaps  a  conscious- 
ness of  gratitude  remains  with  Mr.  Parasite.  It's  a  pleas- 


384  TEN  YEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

ant  office,  very.  Carpeted,  cushioned,  curtained,  pictured, 
secluded.  It  is  pleasant,  very.  This  ever-acknowledged 
honor  of  official  state,  messengers  flying  at  your  bid,  doors 
swinging  noiselessly  at  your  approach,  hats  springing  into 
air  as  you  pass  by,  lorgnettes  lifted  by  fair  hands  in  great 
assemblies,  the  crowd  peering  and  shouting,  "  There  goes 
the  great  Mr.  Parasite ! "  Sweet,  also,  are  the  newly- 
found  uses  of  official  power — sweeter  even  than  to  die 
for  one's  country.  The  privileges  of  patronage,  the  con- 
sciousness of  power  over  the  fate  of  others,  the  uses  of 
power  in  ministering  to  self— first  sought  and  last  relin- 
quished— of  all  the  gifts  of  office. 

While  all  these  retain  the  charm  of  newness,  a  sense  of 
gratitude  may  remain  with  Mr.  Parasite  towards  those  who 
led  and  lifted  him  to  his  high  estate.  Rarely  strong  in  any 
man,  the  sense  of  gratitude  with  continued  office  is  sure  to 
die  out.  When  he  first  enters,  and  the  memory  of  fresh  ser- 
vices remains  with  him,  he  may  feel,  at  least  faintly,  that 
he  owes  something  to  somebody  besides  himself;  but  the 
longer  he  remains,  the  surer  he  is  that  all  is  his  by  right,  all 
due  to  his  own  exalted  merit.  There  comes  a  time  when 
it  seems  as  if  that  cushioned  chair,  that  luxurious  office, 
those  muffled  doors,  those  cringing  messengers,  were  all 
made  especially  for  him  and  to  do  him  service.  With  a 
growing  sense  of  security  in  his  position,  comes,  perhaps, 
an  unconscious  indifference  toward  those  who,  in  the  be- 
ginning, helped  to  lift  him  toward  it.  There  is  no  inten- 
tional ingratitude,  only  it  is  so  easy  for  some  natures  to 
forget  others  when  they  cease  to  need  them. 

Then,  too,  official  place,  even  in  a  republican  govern- 
ment, hourly  feeds  in  a  man  his  love  of  power,  and  his 
sense  of  personal  importance.  It  feeds  the  vanity  and 


SNUBBING   AN    OFFICE    SEEKER.  385 

self-satisfaction  of  poor  human  nature,  when  its  fellows 
are  dependent  upon  it  even  for  the  smallest  favors.  Few 
meet  this  test  and  survive  it  their  noblest  selves.  It  is 
astonishing  how  soon  Mr.  Parasite  forgets  that,  a  short 
time  since,  he  was  a  seeker  of  favors  himself,  and  is  sure 
to  be  again,  before  old  age  strands  him  amid  things  gone 
by  in  the  long-deferred  haven  of  private  life. 

While  a  feeling  of  dependence  on  others  survives,  an 
emotion  of  gratitude  lingers,  Mr.  Parasite  will  try  to  treat 
other  applicants  for  office  as  he  desired  to  be  treated  a 
few  short  months  since  himself.  But  these  emotions 
were  never  known  to  live  through  a  single  stress  of  a 
single  term  of  office. 

Poor  Mr.  Parasite  is  very  much  beset!  Every  hour 
in  the  day  somebody  wants  something  that  somebody 
believes  is  in  Mr.  Parasite's  power  to  bestow.  It  may  be 
flattering,  but  it  is  also  wearing,  tearing,  exasperating, 
and  even  maddening,  sometimes,  to  a  man  to  be  deemed 
the  dispenser  of  so  much  power  and  patronage.  He  can- 
not give  everybody  all  that  everybody  may  ask — of  course 
not.  This  is  not  all  his  sin.  His  sin  is  this :  He  comes  in 
time  (usually  in  a  marvellously  short  time)  to  regard  every 
one  seeking  the  patronage  of  his  office  as  a  mendicant 
on  his  personal  bounty,  rather  than  as  a  member  of  one 
class  with  himself.  Because  he  gained  the  highest  honor, 
he  forgets  that  he  got  it  on  the  very  same  principle  that 
John  Jones,  who,  armed  with  credentials  from  his  minis- 
ter and  doctor,  so  humbly  sues  for  the  post-office  of  Mud- 
town.  He  listens  to  the  sister  pleading  for  her  brother, 
the  wife  for  her  husband,  the  father  for  his  son,  the  poor 
man  for  himself,  and  because  it  is  little  each  asks,  de- 
spises each  accordingly,  lectures  each  on  the  folly  of 

25 


386  TEN  YEARS   IK  WASHINGTON. 

wanting  any  Government  place  whatever.  The  one 
thing  that  he  cannot  remember,  and  which  it  is  most  de- 
lightful to  forget,  is  that  he  was  ever  in  John  Jones' 
place  himself. 

To  be  sure,  he  did  not  sue  for  the  Mudtown  post-office. 
He  wanted  a  foreign  ministry,  a  home  secretaryship,  to 
be  a  Senator,  or,  at  least,  a  Governor.  He  begged  or  bar- 
tered for  these  Government-gifts  precisely  as  John  does 
for  his  post-office.  Both  are  equally  office-seekers ;  but 
there  is  such  disparity  between  John's  little  Alpha  and 
the  Omega  of  Mr.  Parasite's  desires,  the  latter  does  not  rec- 
ognize in  this  seeker  of  small  things  his  remotest  cousin. 
Comparatively  few  dare  demand  ministries  and  secreta- 
ryships, while  post-offices  and  their  ilk  are  as  plentiful 
as  blackberries,  and  their  pickers  equally  so — so  plentiful 
that  Mr.  Parasite  leans  back  in  his  cushioned  chair,  on  his 
official  tripod,  and  wonders  which  John  Jones  it  will  be 
next,  and  what  he  will  want;  and,  when  one  of  the 
innumerable  Johns,  waiting  outside,  is  admitted  by  a 
mighty  messenger,  whose  official  state  is  more  over- 
whelming even  than  his  master's,  the  suppliant  quakes 
to  the  bottom  of  his  boots  in  the  presence  of  the  power- 
ful potentate,  Mr.  Parasite. 

"What  do  you  want?"  says  the  potentate,  in  a  tone 
which  implies  in  advance,  "  You  can't  have  it." 

"Only  the  Mudtown  post-office,"  says  John,  "or — or 
anything  that  I  can  get." 

"  Impossible ;  I  have  nothing — nothing  for  you,"  says 
the  potentate,  in  a  remote  and  superior  tone,  which  indi- 
cates, as  only  a  tone  can,  that  he,  the  potentate,  needs 
nothing  at  present  himself.  And  who  can  imagine  that 
he  ever  did  ?  "  Why  on  earth  do  so  many  of  you  come 


MR.  PARASITE'S  GRANDEUR.  387 

for  Government  employment?  Don't  you  know  it  is  the 
worst  thing  in  the  world  for  you?  You  had  better  go  to 
work.  Do  anything,  rather  than  to  hang  upon  the 
Government." 

Thus  one  John  is  dismissed,  to  go  and  browse  in  the 
closely-cropped  and  over-crowded  pastures  of  the  ineffi- 
cient and  ne'er-do-well  mediocrity. 

Several  days  later,  when  John  rebounds  from  the  shock 
imparted  by  Mr.  Parasite's  grandeur,  its  momentum  sends 
him  pat  against  a  fact.  "  Why,  he  is  a  hanger-on  to  the 
Government  himself."  Yes ;  and  so,  in  one  sense,  is  every 
office-holder,  from  the  President  down  to  the  mighty  mes- 
senger who  condescends  to  shut  and  open  doors.  It  implies 
no  discredit  to  be  a  server  of  the  Government ;  but  it  re- 
veals a  very  ignoble  side  of  human  nature,  when  the  favored 
holder  rebuffs  the  lowliest  seeker  as  a  being  from  another 
race,  in  any  essential  quality  the  antipodes  of  himself. 

A  man  who  has  just  been  lifted  by  his  friends  from  one 
high  place  to  another,  has  long  boasted,  while  in  power, 
a  that  he  would  not  help  a  friend  sooner  than  an  enemy.'* 
I  had  a  certain  admiration  for  him  till  I  knew  that  he 
said  this,  and  proved  it  by  his  practice.  There  is  some- 
thing true  and  grateful  and  noble  lacking  in  a  man's  na- 
ture, when  he  turns  from  his  friend  as  he  would  from  an 
enemy,  doing  nothing  for  either;  always  taking,  and 
never  giving;  always  seeking,  yet  sneering  at  others 
who  seek ;  always  subsisting  on  Government  bounty  and 
place  himself,  while  he  wounds,  ignores,  and  sometimes 
insults  the  unfortunates  who  wish  to  do  likewise  and  can't. 

This  is  Mr.  Parasite,  and  he  lives,  reigns  and  flourishes, 
as  parasites  only  can,  in  every  department  of  govern- 
mental state. 


CHAPTER  XXXVH. 

THE  DEAD  LETTER  OFFICE— ITS  MARVELS  AND  MYS- 
TERIES. 

The  Post- Office— Its  Architecture— The  Monolithic  Corinthian  Columns— 
The  Postal  Service  in  Early  Times— The  Act  of  Queen  Anne's  Reign— 
"  Her  Majesty's  Colonies  "—After  the  Revolution— The  First  Postmaster- 
General— The  Present  Chief— A  Cabinet  Minister— The  Subordinate  Offi 
cers — Their  Positions  and  Duties — The  Ocean  Mail  Postal  Service — Th& 
Contract  Office— The  Finance  Office— The  Inspection  Office— Complaints 
and  Misdoings — Benjamin  Franklin's  Appointment — He  Goes  into  Debt- 
One  Hundred  and  Twenty  Years  Ago — Franklin  Performs  Wonderful 
Works — His  Ideas  of  Speed — Between  Boston  and  Philadelphia  in  Six 
Weeks— Dismissed  from  Office— The  Congress  of  "  The  Confederation  — 
A  New  Post  Office  System — Franklin  Comes  In  Again — The  Inspector  of 
Dead  Letters— Not  Allowed  to  Take  Copies  of  Letters— Only  Seventy- 
five  Offices  in  the  States — Primitive  Regulations — Only  One  Clerk- 
Government  Stages — The  Office  at  Washington — Saved  from  the  British 
Troops— Franklin's  Old  Ledger— The  Present  Number  of  Post  Offices— 
The  Dead  Letter  Office— The  Ladies  Too  Much  Squeezed— Some  of  the 
Ladies  "  Packed  "—Opening  the  Dead  Letters— Why  Certain  Persons  are 
Trusted— Three  Thousand  Thoughtless  People— Valuable  Letters— Ensur- 
ing Correctness — The  Property  Branch— The  Touching  Story  of  the  Pho- 
tographs— The  Return  Branch — What  the  Postmaster  Says. 

ri  THOUGH  injured  in  comparison  by  the  higher  site  and 
-L  loftier  walls  of  the  Patent-Office  opposite,  the  Post- 
Office,  in  itself,  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  public  build- 
ings in  Washington.  It  occupies  the  entire  block  situated 
on  Seventh  and  Eighth  streets  west,  and  E  and  F  streets 
north.  Like  the  Treasury  and  Patent-Office,  it  incloses 
a  grassy  court-yard  on  which  its  inner  offices  look  out. 
The  architecture  of  the  Post-Office  is  a  modified  Corin- 


THE    POST-OFFICE.  389 

thian,  and  is  regarded  by  critics  as  the  best  representation 
of  the  Italian  palatial  ever  built  upon  this  continent.  It 
was  designed  chiefly  by  F.  A.  Walter,  at  that  time  archi- 
tect of  the  Capitol,  an  artist  who  has  left  monuments  of 
architectural  beauty  behind  him  in  marble  which,  seem- 
ingly, can  never  perish.  On  the  Seventh  street  side  there 
is  a  vestibule,  the  ceiling  of  which  is  composed  of  richly 
ornamented  marbles,  supported  by  four  marble  columns  ; 
the  walls,  niches  and  floors  are  of  marble,  polished  and  tes- 
sellated. This  is  the  grand  entrance  to  the  General  Post- 
Office  Department.  The  F  street  front  affords  accommo- 
dation to  the  city  Post  Office.  It  has  a  deeply  recessed 
portico  in  the  centre,  consisting  of  eight  columns  grouped 
in  pairs,  and  flanked  by  coupled  pilasters  supporting  an 
entablature  which  girds  the  entire  work.  The  portico 
is  supported  by  an  arcade  which  furnishes  ample  conven- 
ience for  the  delivery  of  letters,  and  the  hurrying  crowds 
which  come  after  them.  The  Corinthian  columns  of  this 
portico  are  each  formed  of  a  single  'block  of  marble,  and 
each  in  itself  is  a  marvel  of  architectural  grace.  The 
entrance  for  the  mail  wagons,  on  Eighth  street,  consists  of 
a  grand  archway,  the  spandrels  of  which  bear  upon  their 
face,  sculpture  representing  Steam  and  Electricity,  while 
a  mask,  representing  Fidelity,  forms  the  key-stone. 

The  Postal  Service  of  the  country  is  the  oldest  branch 
of  the  Government.  As  early  as  the  year  1792,  a  propo- 
sition was  introduced  into  the  General  Assembly  of  Vir- 
ginia, to  establish  the  office  of  Postmaster-General  of 
Virginia  and  other  parts  of  America.  The  proposition 
became  a  law,  but  was  never  carried  into  effect.  In  1710, 
during  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne,  the  British  Parliament 
established  a  General  Post-Office  for  all  Her  Majesty's  do- 


390  TEN   YEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

minions.  By  this  act,  the  Postmaster-General  was  per- 
mitted to  have  one  chief  letter  office  in  New  York,  and 
other  chief  letter  offices  at  some  convenient  place  or 
places  in  each  of  Her  Majesty's  provinces  or  colonies  in 
America.  When  the  colonies  threw  off  their  allegiance 
to  the  Crown,  especial  care  was  given  to  preserving,  as  far 
as  possible,  the  postal  facilities  of  the  country.  When 
the  Federal  Constitution  was  adopted,  the  right  was  se- 
cured to  Congress  "to  establish  Post-Offices  and  Post- 
Roads."  In  1789,  Congress  created  the  office  of  Post- 
master-General, and  defined  his  duties.  Other  laws  have 
since  been  passed,  regulating  the  increased  powers  and 
duties  of  the  Department,  which  is  now,  next  to  the 
Treasury,  the  most  extensive  in  the  country. 

The  Postmaster-General,  the  head  of  the  Department, 
is  a  member  of  the  President's  Cabinet,  and  is  in  charge 
of  the  postal  affairs  of  the  United  States.  The  business 
of  the  various  branches  of  the  Department  is  conducted 
in  his  name  and  by  his  authority.  He  has  a  general  su- 
pervision of  the  whole  Department,  and  issues  all  orders 
concerning  the  service  rendered  the  Government  through 
his  subordinates.  During  the  first  administrations  of  the 
Government,  the  Postmaster-General  was  not  regarded  as 
a  Cabinet  Minister,  but  simply  as  the  head  of  a  Bureau. 
In  1829,  General  Jackson  invited  Mr.  Barry,  the  gentle- 
man appointed  by  him  to  that  office,  to  a  seat  in  his  Cab- 
inet. Since  that  time,  the  Postmaster-General  has  been 
recognized,  as  ex-officio,  a  Cabinet  Minister. 

The  first  Postmaster-General  was  Samuel  Osgood,  of 
Massachusetts.  The  present  Postmaster  is  Marshall  Jew- 
ell, of  Hartford,  Connecticut. 

The  subordinate  officers  of  the  Department  are  three 


INSIDE   THE    POST-OFFICE.  391 

Assistant  Postmaster-Generals,  and  the  Chief  of  the  In- 
spection Office.  The  Appointment  Office  is  in  charge  of 
the  First  Assistant  Postmaster-General.  To  this  office  are 
assigned  all  questions  which  relate  to  the  establishment 
and  discontinuance  of  post-offices,  changes  of  sites  and 
names,  appointment  and  removal  of  postmasters,  and  route 
and  local  agents,  as,  also,  the  giving  of  instructions  to 
postmasters.  Postmasters  are  furnished  with  marking  and 
rating-stamps  and  letter-balances  by  this  Bureau,  which  is 
charged  also  with  providing  blanks  and  stationery  for  the 
use  of  the  Department,  and  with  the  superintendence  of 
the  several  agencies  established  for  supplying  postmasters 
with  blanks.  "To  this  Bureau  is  likewise  assigned  the 
supervision  of  the  ocean-mail  steamship-lines,  and  of  the 
foreign  and  international  postal  arrangements." 

The  Contract-Office  is  in  charge  of  the  Second  Assistant 
Postmaster-General.  To  this  office  is  assigned  the  busi- 
ness of  arranging  the  mail  service  of  the  United  States, 
and  placing  the  same  under  contract,  embracing  all  cor- 
respondence and  proceedings  affecting  the  frequency  of 
trips,  mode  of  conveyance,  and  time  of  departures  and 
arrivals  on  all  the  routes  ;  the  course  of  the  mail  between 
the  different  sections  of  the  country ;  the  points  of  mail 
distribution ;  and  the  regulations  for  the  government  of 
the  domestic  mail  service  of  the  United  States.  It  pre- 
pares the  advertisements  for  mail  proposals,  receives  the 
bids,  and  takes  charge  of  the  annual  and  occasional  mail 
lettings,  and  the  adjustment  and  execution  of  the  con- 
tracts. All  applications  for  the  establishment  or  alteration 
of  mail  arrangements,  and  the  appointment  of  mail  mes- 
sengers, should  be  sent  to  this  office.  All  claims  should 
be  submitted  to  it  for  transportation  service  not  under 


392  TEN   YEARS    IN    WASHINGTON. 

contract,  as  the  recognition  of  said  service  is  first  to  be 
obtained  through  the  Coritraci^Office  as  a  necessary  author- 
ity for  the  proper  credits  at  the  Auditor's-Office. 

From  this  office  all  postmasters  at  the  ends  of  routes 
receive  the  statement  of  mail  arrangements  prescribed 
for  the  respective  routes.  It  reports  weekly  to  the  Audi- 
tor all  contracts  executed  and  all  orders  affecting  ac- 
counts for  mail  transportation;  prepares  the  statistical 
exhibits  of  mail  service,  and  the  reports  of  the  mail  let- 
tings,  giving  a  statement  of  each  bid ;  also  of  the  contracts 
made,  the  new  service  originated,  the  curtailments  or- 
dered, and  the  additional  allowances  granted  within  the 
year. 

The  Finance-Office  is  in  charge  of  the  Third  Assistant 
Postmaster-General.  To  this  office  is  assigned  the  super- 
vision and  management  of  the  financial  business  of  the 
Department  not  devolved  by  law  upon  the  Auditor,  em- 
bracing accounts  with  the  draft  offices  and  other  deposi- 
tories of  the  Department;  the  issuing  of  warrants  and 
drafts  in  payment  of  balance's,  reported  by  the  Auditor 
to  be  due  mail  contractors  and  other  persons ;  the  super- 
vision of  the  accounts  of  offices  under  orders  to  deposit 
their  quarterly  balances  at  designated  points;  and  the 
superintendence  of  the  rendition  by  postmasters  of  their 
quarterly  returns  of  postages.  It  has  charge  of  the 
Dead-Letter  Office,  of  the  issuing  of  postage  stamps  and 
stamped  envelopes  for  the  prepayment  of  postage,  and 
with  the  accounts  connected  therewith. 

To  the  Third  Assistant  Postmaster-General  all  post- 
masters should  direct  their  quarterly  returns;  those  at 
draft-offices,  their  letters  reporting  quarterly  the  net  pro- 
ceeds of  their  offices;  and  those  at  depositing-offices, 


POST-OFFICE    MACHINERY.  393 

their  certificates  of  deposit.  To  him  should  also  be  directed 
the  weekly  and  monthly  returns  of  the  depositories  of  the 
Department,  as  well  as  applications  and  receipts  for  post- 
age stamps  and  stamped  envelopes,  and  for  dead  letters. 

The  Inspection-Office  is  in  charge  of  a  Chief  Clerk. 
To  this  office  is  assigned  the  duty  of  receiving  and 
examining  the  registers  of  the  arrivals  and  departures  of 
the  mails,  certificates  of  the  service  of  rowte-agents,  and 
reports  of  mail  failures  ;  noting  the  delinquencies  of  con- 
tractors, and  preparing  cases  thereon  for  the  action  of  the 
Postmaster- General ;  furnishing  blanks  for  mail  registers 
and  reports  of  mail  failures,  providing  and  sending  out 
mail  bags  and  mail  locks  and  keys,  and  doing  all  other 
things  which  may  be  necessary  to  secure  a  faithful  and 
exact  performance  of  all  mail  contracts. 

All  cases  of  mail  depredation,  of  violations  of  law  by 
private  expresses,  or  by  the  forging  and  illegal  use  of 
postage  stamps,  are  under  supervision  of  this  office,  and 
should  be  reported  to  it.  All  communications  respecting 
lost  money-letters,  mail  depredations,  or  other  violations 
of  law,  or  mail  locks  and  keys,  should  be  directed  to 
«  Chief  Clerk,  Post-Office  Department." 

All  registers  of  the  arrivals  and  departures  of  the  mails, 
certificates  of  the  service  of  rowfe-agents,  reports  of  mail 
failures,  applications  for  mail  registers,  and  all  complaints 
against  contractors  for  irregular  or  imperfect  service, 
should  be  directed,  "  Inspection  Office,  Post-Office  Depart- 
ment." 

Benjamin  Franklin  was  appointed  General  Deputy  Post- 
master of  the  Colonies,  in  the  year  1753,  with  a  salary 
between  him  and  his  confederates,  of  £600,  if  they  could 
get  it.  This  experiment  brought  him  in  debt  <£9?0;  and 


394  TEN   TEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

his  success  in  expediting  the  mails,  which  he  dwells  upon 
with  so  much  satisfaction  in  his  writings,  will  create  a 
smile  in  these  days  of  electricity,  steam,  and  "young- 
American"  speed.  In  the  year  1754,  he  gave  notice  that 
the  inail  to  New  England,  which  used  to  start  but  once  a 
fortnight,  in  winter,  should  start  once  a  week,  all  the  year, 
"  whereby  answers  might  be  obtained  to  letters  between 
Philadelphia  and  Boston  in  three  weeks,  which  used  to 
require  six  weeks  !  " 

Franklin  was  removed  from  his  office  by  the  British 
Ministry ;  but  in  the  year  1775,  the  Congress  of  the  Con- 
federation having  assumed  the  practical  sovereignty  of 
the  Colonies,  appointed  a  committee  to  devise  a  system 
of  post-office  communication,  who  made  a  report  recom- 
mending a  plan  on  the  26th  of  July,  which  on  the  same 
day  was  adopted,  and  Doctor  Franklin  unanimously  ap- 
pointed Postmaster-General,  at  a  salary  of  $1,000  per 
annum.  The  salary  of  the  Postmaster-General  was 
doubled  on  the  16th  of  April,  1779,  and  on  the  27th  day 
of  December,  of  the  same  year,  Congress  increased  the 
salary  to  $5,000  per  annum. 

An  Inspector  of  Dead  Letters  was  also  appointed,  at  a 
salary  of  $100  per  annnm,  who  was  under  oath  faithfully 
and  impartially  to  discharge  the  duties  of  his  office,  and 
enjoined  to  take  no  copies  of  letters,  and  not  to  divulge 
the  contents  to  any  but  Congress,  or  to  those  who  were 
appointed  by  Congress  for  that  purpose.  Dr.  Franklin, 
on  the  7th  of  November,  1776,  was  succeeded  as  Post- 
master-General by  his  relative,  Richard  Bache,  who  re- 
mained in  office  till  the  28th  of  January,  1782,  when  he 
was  succeeded  by  Ebenezer  Hazard,  who  was  the  last 
head  of  the  General  Post-Office  under  the  Confederacy. 


PRIMITIVE    POSTAL   ARRANGEMENTS.  395 

In  1790,  there  were  but  seventy-five  post-offices  in  the 
United  States,  and  but  eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-five 
miles  of  post  routes. 

The  General  Post-Office,  in  1790,  was  located  in  New 
York,  and  Samuel  Osgood,  of  Massachusetts,  was  the  first 
Postmaster-General  under  the  Federal  Government.  His 
conception  of  the  duties  of  his  office  were,  doubtless,  very 
humble,  as  he  recommended  "that  the  Postmaster-Gen- 
eral should  not  keep  an  office  separate  from  the  one  in 
which  the  mail  was  opened  and  distributed ;  that  he 
might,  by  his  presence,  prevent  irregularities,  and  rectify 
any  mistakes  that  might  occur;"  in  fact,  put  the  Post- 
master-General, his  assistant,  and  their  one  clerk,  in  the 
city  post-office,  to  see  that  its  mails  were  assorted  and 
made  up  correctly. 

The  salary  of  Mr.  Osgood  was  $1,500  per  annum.  Tim- 
othy Pickering  was  appointed  by  Washington,  August  12, 
1791,  at  an  increased  salary  of  $2,000.  Joseph  Haloshan 
was  the  last  Postmaster-General  appointed  by  Washing- 
ton. He  was  commissioned  April  22,  1795,  at  a  salary  of 
$2,400  per  annum.  The  office  was  located  in  Phila- 
delphia, in  the  year  1796,  and  was  established  at  Wash- 
ington when  the  Federal  Government  was  removed  there. 
In  1802,  the  United  States  ran  their  own  stages  between 
Philadelphia  and  New  York,  finding  coaches,  drivers, 
horses,  etc.,  and  cleared  in  three  years  over  $11,000,  by 
carrying  passengers. 

That  sultry  morning  of  August  25, 1814,  when  Admiral 
Cockburn  and  his  drunken  crew,  eager  for  fresh  destruc- 
tion, marched  from  Capitol  Hill  to  the  War  Office,  which 
they  burned,  and  from  it  down  F  street  to  treat  the  Post- 
Office  to  the  same  fate,  they  found  it  on  the  site  where  its 


396  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

marble  successor  now  stands,  and  under  the  same  roof  the 
Patent-Office.  Says  Charles  J.  Ingersoll,  in  his  rambling 
history : 

"  Dr.  Thornton,  then  Chief  of  the  Patent-Office,  accompanied 
the  detachment  to  the  locked  door  of  the  repository,  the  key 
having  been  taken  away  by  another  clerk  watching  out  of  night. 
Axes  and  other  implements  of  force  were  used  to  break  in ; 
Thornton  entreating,  remonstrating,  and  finally  prevailing  on 
Major  Waters,  superintending  the  destruction,  to  postpone  it 
till  Thornton  could  see  Colonel  Jones,  then  engaged  with  Ad- 
miral Cockburn  in  destroying  the  office  of  the  National  Intelli- 
gencer, not  far  off  on  Pennsylvania  avenue.  Colonel  Jones 
had  declared  that  it  was  not  designed  to  destroy  private  prop- 
erty, which  Dr.  Thornton  assured  Major  Waters  most  of  that  in 
the  Patent-Office  was.  A  curious  musical  instrument,  of  his  own 
construction,  which  he  particularly  strove  to  snatch  from  ruin, 
with  a  providential  gust  soon  after,  saved  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment from  removal,  for  want  of  any  building  in  which  Congress 
could  assemble,  when  they  met  in  Washington  three  weeks 
afterwards.  Hundreds  of  models  of  the  useful  arts,  preserved 
in  the  office,  were  of  no  avail  to  save  it ;  but  music  softened 
the  rugged  breasts  of  the  least  musical  of  civilized  people. 
Major  Waters  agreed,  at  last,  to  respite  the  patents  and  the 
musical  instrument  till  his  return  from  Greenleaf  s  Point,  where 
other  objects  were  to  be  laid  in  ruins." 

But  with  the  explosion  of  the  magazine  at  Greenleaf's 
Point,  and  the  tornado,  both  of  which  made  unexpected 
havoc  with  the  lives  of  the  British  vandals,  and  their 
withdrawal  under  cover  of  night,  they  never  came  back 
to  the  Patent  and  Post-Office,  to  destroy  it.  It  was,  I 
believe,  the  only  public  building  in  the  capital  which 
escaped  their  torch.  It  was,  however,  destroyed  by  fire, 
December  15,  1836. 


INSIDE    THE   DEAD-LETTER   OFFICE.  39? 

One  of  the  most  precious  treasures,  now  in  the  posses* 
sion  of  the  Post-Office  Department,  is  the  original  ledger 
of  Doctor  Benjamin  Franklin,  Postmaster-General,  1776, 
which  upon  its  title-page  bears  the  following  record : 

"  This  book  was  rescued  from  the  flames,  during  the  burning 
of  the  Post-Office  Building,  on  Thursday  morning,  Dec.  15, 
1836,  by  W.  W.  Cox,  messenger  of  the  office  of  the  Auditor  of 
the  Treasury  for  the  Post-Office  Department." 

This  ledger  is  now  on  file  in  the  office  of  the  Auditor 
of  the  Treasury  for  the  Post-Office  Department.  Scorched 
and  worn,  it  tells  the  story  of  time  and  fate.  It  embraces 
all  the  accounts  of  all  the  post-offices  of  the  United 
States  for  the  years  1776-77-78.  These  are  all  recorded 
in  the  handwriting  of  Doctor  Franklin,  and  do  not  cover 
one  hundred  and  twenty  pages.  The  growth  in  the 
postal  service  may  be  partly  measured  by  the  fact  that 
its  money  record,  kept  by  Benjamin  Franklin,  running 
through  eleven  years,  is  equalled,  at  the  present  time,  by 
the  accounts  of  two  days.  When  the  philosopher  was 
at  the  head  of  the  Post-Office  Department,  there  were 
eighty  post-offices  in  the  Confederation ;  there  are  now 
thirty- two  thousand  post-offices  in  the  United  States,  with 
the  number  constantly  increasing. 

The  Dead-Letter  Office  embodies  more  personal  interest 
than  any  other  in  the  Pos^Office  Department.  It  is  a ' 
spacious  room,  unique  in  outline,  many-windowed  and 
well  ventilated.  It  is  surrounded  by  a  wide  gallery,  sup- 
ported by  spiral  columns.  An  open  iron  staircase  con- 
nects it  with  the  lower  office.  It  is  set  apart  for  the 
woman's  work  of  this  division.  They  are  far  out-num- 
bered by  the  men  below,  and  yet  in  this  narrow  gallery 
they  are  sadly  crowded. 


398  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Spacious  as  the  Post-Office  is,  in  going  thereto,  the  same 
conclusion  is  forced  upon  one,  which  is  apparent  in  every 
public  building,  that  it  is  already  too  small  for  the  vast 
and  rapidly  increasing  demands  of  the  public  service. 
The  gentlemen  which  you  see  at  work  below  have  nothing 
to  complain  of  in  lack  of  light  or  air,  but  the  ladies 
above  say  that  their  little  gallery  is  the  escape  valve  to  all 
the  poisoned  air  below ;  that  their  heads  are  so  near  the 
roof  there  is  no  chance  for  ventilation,  and  that  sudden 
death,  among  their  number,  has  been  caused  by  the  air- 
poison  which  pervades  this  gallery.  The  ladies  need  more 
room  for  a  new  office ;  indeed,  already  they  have  over- 
flowed the  gallery  and  are  packed  closely  in  the  halls. 

Meanwhile,  in  an  imposing-looking  apartment  beneath 
them,  sit  their  brethren,  on  either  side  of  the  long  table, 
opening  the  "  dead-letters  "  which  they  are  to  re-direct.  I 
believe  there  are  fourteen  clergymen,  sitting  at  a  single 
table,  opening  these  letters.  Preference  is  given  to  gentle- 
men of  this  profession,  broken  in  health  or  fortune,  as  it  is 
taken  for  granted  that  if  they  have  lived  to  that  age  and 
fate,  without  ever  having  committed  a  dishonest  act,  it  is 
most  unlikely  that  they  ever  will — and  that  the  treasure- 
letters  are  perfectly  safe  in  their  keeping.  Moreover, 
their  profession  is  also  in  their  favor.  They  must  have 
been  unworldly-minded,  says  the  reasoner,  or  they  would 
never  have  chosen  to  be  clergymen.  Nearly  all  are 
elderly  men,  and  among  the  number  are  a  few  old  ones, — 
one,  who  has  been  in  this  office  over  fifty  years,  a  brother 
of  its  one  time  Postmaster-General,  Amos  Kendall — hair 
white  as  snow — back  bent  over  the  table — hands  trem- 
bling as  he  uses  his  knife — it  is  his  life  to  go  on  opening  his 
quota  of  daily  letters,  for  the  pittance  of  $1,200  per  year. 


OPENING  DEAD -LETTERS.  399 

"  If  he  were  refused  the  privilege,"  said  an  officer,  "  he 
would  die  at  once." 

In  this  office,  from  the  thirty  thousand  post-offices  in 
the  United  States  are  received,  annually,  about  three 
million  five  hundred  thousand  dead-letters ;  unmailable 
letters,  three  hundred  and  sixty  thousand ;  blank  letters, 
three  thousand. 

It  seems  impossible  that  three  thousand  persons,  in  a 
single  year,  should  post  letters  without  a  single  letter 
traced  on  their  envelopes ;  nevertheless,  this  is  true. 

In  one  corner  of  this  office  stand  two  men,  by  an  open 
door,  whose  business  it  is  to  receive  the  dead-letters  as 
they  ascend  to  the  office.  They  come  up  on  an  elevator — 
tied  up  in  immense  bags.  As  they  are  tossed  out  on  the 
floor,  one  would  suppose  that  they  contained  coffee  for 
merchandise,  rather  than  heart-messages  and  treasures 
gone  astray.  The  bags  are  immediately  opened  and  the 
letters  transferred  to  the  assorting  table,  where  they  are 
classified  by  clerks.  The  foreign  letters  are  separated 
from  the  domestic,  arid  any  irregularity  in  their  trans- 
mission is  noted.  They  are  then  counted,  numbered  and 
tied  up  into  packages  of  one  hundred  each,  and  thrown 
into  bins,  whence  they  are  withdrawn  in  the  order  of 
the  date  of  their  reception,  and  transferred  to  the  open- 
ing table  to  be  hari-karied  by  our  clergymen. 

Letters  containing  nothing,  if  possible,  are  returned  to 
their  writers.  If  they  cannot  be,  they  are  thrown  into 
the  waste-basket.  This  waste-paper  is  not  burned  but 
sold — and  averages  to  the  Government  a  revenue  of  about 
$4,000  per  year.  With  all  his  extravagances,  this  is  but 
one  of  numerous  ways  by  which  Uncle  Sam  manages  to 
turn  an  economical  penny  out  of  the  carelessness  and 
misfortunes  of  nephews  and  nieces. 


400  TEN  TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Letters  containing  anything,  of  the  smallest  value,  are 
saved  and  registered  unde.r  their  different  heads.  Money, 
jewels,  drafts,  money-orders,  receipts,  hair,  seeds,  deeds, 
military-papers,  pension-papers,  etc.,  are  all  recorded  and 
returned,  if  possible.  A  "  money  letter  "  has  five  different 
records  before  it  leaves  the  Dead-Letter  Office,  and  is  so 
checked  and  counter-checked  as  to  make  collusion  or 
abstraction  almost  impossible,  in  case  any  soul  who  sur- 
veyed it  were  fatally  tempted. 

When  the  opener  of  a  letter  finds  money,  he  immedi- 
ately makes  a  record  of  it.  The  next  morning,  the  head  of 
"  the  Opening  Table  "  records  in  a  book  each  letter  found 
and  recorded  by  each  opener  the  day  before.  The  lettera 
are  then  taken  from  a  safe,  in  which  they  were  locked  the 
night  previous,  and  their  contents  recounted,  to  make 
sure  of  absolute  correctness,  before  leaving  the  Opening 
Table.  The  money-letters,  with  the  record  of  that  day, 
are  then  handed  over  to  the  head  of  the  Money  Branch, 
where  the  letters  recorded  by  the  head  of  the  Opening 
Table  are  certified  and  receipted.  They  are  next  in- 
dexed and  delivered  to  the  several  clerks  of  the  Money 
Branch,  each  receipting  every  letter  he  has  recorded  on 
the  Index  Book.  He  then  records  the  letter  and  sends 
it  to  the  writer,  through  the  postmaster  of  the  place 
where  the  party  lives.  The  owner,  on  receiving  the 
money,  receipts  for  the  same  on  a  blank  accompanying 
the  letter,  which  he  sends  back  to  the  Dead-Letter  Office. 
The  letters  are  again  re-examined  by  two  clerks,  to  see 
if  the  amounts  are  correct,  who  conjointly  scrutinize  and 
seal  the  letters.  They  are  then  registered  to  the  different 
distributing  offices,  with  all  the  precautionary  checks  of  a 
registered  letter.  In  time,  the  letter  or  a  receipt  ?*">m 


SECRETS    OF    THE    DEAD-LETTERS.  401 

the  owner,  through  the  postmaster,  is  returned.  If  a 
receipt  is  received,  it  is  recorded,  with  date,  as  a  final 
disposition  of  the  letter.  If  the  money  is  returned,  it  is 
so  noted  and  recorded  on  a  separate  record  kept  for  the 
purpose,  that  record  showing,  perpetually,  how  much 
money  is  on  hand.  If  not  claimed  at  the  end  of  three 
months,  the  money  is  deposited  in  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States,  subject  to  the  application  of  the  owner. 
By  this  minute  and  exhaustive  routine,  every  money- 
letter,  and  every  cent  which  they  contain,  is  absolutely 
accounted  for — traced,  refunded,  and  held. 

Drafts,  deeds,  checks,  power-of-attorney  and  wills  are 
recorded,  and  sent  through  postmasters  to  their  owners, 
they  returning  receipts  for  the  same. 

Foreign  letters  are  assorted,  the  amounts  due  this  and 
other  countries  recorded,  and  a  system  of  accounts  kept, 
showing,  by  a  list  returned  with  the  letters,  a  correct  state- 
ment. Foreign  letters  are  returned  weekly,  to  England, 
Germany  and  the  Netherlands.  The  liberal  postage 
recently  adopted  by  these  countries  has  opened  so  large 
a  correspondence,  it  involves  more  frequent  returns. 

The  Property-Branch  is  of  a  most  miscellaneous  char- 
acter. It  involves  the  recording  and  returning  of  jew- 
ellery, and  of  almost  every  other  article  under  the  sun. 
Many  of  these  it  is  impossible  to  return.  These  accu- 
mulate in  such  vast  piles,  it  is  necessary  to  dispose  of 
them  at  auction,  at  least,  as  often  as  once  in  four  years. 

At  each  sale,  a  complete  catalogue  of  the  articles  is 
presented,  and  the  proceeds  are  deposited  in  the  United 
States  Treasury. 

A  room,  leading  from  the  Dead-Letter  Office,  lined 
with  closed  closets  to  its  lofty  ceiling,  is  the  receptacle  of 

26 


402  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

all  these  stranded  treasures.  When  the  custodian  unlocks 
their  doors  and  you  behold  what  is  shut  within,  you  are 
lost  in  wonder  as  to  what  must  be  the  conceived  capacity 
of  the  Post-Office  in  the  minds  of  your  compatriots. 
Before  your  eyes,  crammed  into  shelves,  you  see  patch- 
work quilts,  under  garments,  and  outer  garments;  hats, 
caps,  and  bonnets ;  shoes  and  stockings ;  with  no  end  of 
nicknacks  and  keepsakes  ;  "  sets  "  of  embroidery,  baby- 
wardrobes,  watches,  and  jewels  of  every  description — • 
though  the  greater  proportion  is  of  the  "  fire-gilt,"  "  dollar- 
store  "  description.  Many  really  beautiful  pictures  are 
retained,  because  not  sufficiently  prepaid.  Some  of  these, 
sent  as  gifts,  are  left  by  the  chosen  recipients  to  be  sold  at 
auction — the  postage  often  amounting  to  far  more  than 
the  value  of  the  picture.  Many  motley  articles  peer 
forth  from  their  hiding-places  ignominiously  "  franked," 
yet  retained,  the  frank  not  being  sufficient  legal-tender 
to  insure  their  triumphal  passage  to  the  place  of  final 
destination.  Among  these  is  an  iron  apple-parer. 

Many  of  these  cheap  treasures  were  precious  keepsakes 
from  the  hearts  which  fondly  sent  them — under  very  un- 
intelligible superscriptions — to  sweethearts  whom  they 
never  reached.  Some  are  tokens  from  beyond  the  seas, 
which  came  from  a  far-off  land  only  to  find  the  one 
sought — dead  or  living — gone,  without  a  clue. 

During  the  war,  tens  of  thousands  of  photographs  were 
thus  sent  astray.  The  husband,  the  father,  the  brother, 
the  son,  under  whose  name  they  came — alas  !  when  they 
reached  his  regiment,  he  was  not — the  heaped-up  trench, 
the  unknown  grave,  the  unburied  dead — somewhere  amid 
them  all — he  slept,  and  the  memento  of  the  love  that 
lived  for  him,  came  back  to  this  receptacle  of  the  nation, 


WHERE   THE  DEAD-LETTERS   GO.  403 

and  here  it  is !  On  a  stand  near  the  window,  is  an 
immense  open  book  lined  with  photographs,  all  the  photo- 
graphs of  soldiers.  With  a  tender  hand,  the  Government 
gathered  these  pictures  of  its  lost  and  unknown  sons  and 
garnered  them  here,  for  the  sake  of  the  living,  who  might 
seek  their  lost.  Turning  over  the  pages,  we  see  many 
empty  spaces,  and  find  that  friends  coming  here  and 
turning  over  the  pages  of  this  book  have  identified  the 
faces  of  loved  ones  who  perished  in  the  war.  Many  of 
these  are  photographs  of  a  poor  character,  (whose  transient 
chemicals  are  already  fading  out,)  which  were  taken  on 
the  field,  and  sent,  by  soldiers,  home  to  mothers,  wives, 
sisters  and  sweethearts.  The  chances  of  war  are  sufficient 
to  account  for  their  going  astray  of  their  objects  and  for 
their  return  here — where  more  than  one  tear-blinded  wo- 
man has  sought  and  found  them,  at  last. 

To  return  to  the  dryer  details  of  the  Dead-Letter  Of- 
fice, we  find  that  all  letters  held  for  postage,  all  blank, 
unmailable,  and  hotel  letters  pass  through  a  like  process 
with  the  dead-letter,  with  the  exception  of  the  unmail- 
able letters,  which  come  directly  from  the  office  with  writ- 
ten lists,  which  are  checked  to  see  if  the  letters  are  all 
with  the  lists.  These  the  opener  counter-checks,  marking 
the  contents  both  on  letter  and  list,  to  show  that  it  was 
received  and  doubly  opened.  These  lists,  with  their  let- 
ters, are  sent  to  the  Return  Branch.  Here  they  are  re- 
turned to  their  writers,  and  their  lists  are  made  to  show 
the  disposition  of  every  letter.  These  lists  are  carefully 
filed  and  subject  to  re-perusal.  The  Return  Branch,  which 
is  composed  entirely  of  ladies,  sends  average  dead-letters 
back  to  their  writers  at  the  rate  of  seven  thousand  a  day. 
In  this  branch  we  find  the  application-clerk  whose  duty 


404  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

it  is  to  trace  letters,  and  to  send  such  information  to  per- 
sons applying  for  letters  as  the  records  may  show.  In 
case  of  the  loss  of  a  valuable  letter,  the  Department 
spares  no  pains  in  its  efforts  to  trace  and  find  it. 

The  Postmaster-General,  in  one  of  his  recent  reportsp 
says  of  this  branch  of  the  Postal  Service : 

"  In  the  examination  of  domestic  dead-letters,  for  disposition, 
1,736,867  were  found  to  be  either  not  susceptible  of  being  re- 
turned, or  of  no  importance,  circulars,  etc.,  and  were  destroyed 
after  an  effort  to  return  them — making  about  51  per  cent,  de- 
stroyed. The  remainder  were  classified  and  returned  to  the 
owners  as  far  as  practicable.  The  whole  number  sent  from  the 
office  was  2,258,199-,  of  which  about  84  per  cent,  were  delivered 
to  owners,  and  16  per  cent,  were  returned  to  the  Department  -, 
18,340  letters,  containing  $95,169.52,  in  sums  of  $1  and  upward, 
of  which  16,061  letters,  containing  $86,638.66,  were  delivered 
to  owners,  and  2,124,  containing  $7,862.36,  were  filed  or  held  for 
disposition  ;  14,082  contained  $3,436.68,  in  sums  of  less  than  $  1, 
of  which  12,513,  containing  $3,120.70,  were  delivered  to  owners; 
17,750  contained  drafts,  deeds,  and  other  papers  of  value,  repre- 
senting the  value  of  $3,609,271.80 — of  these  16,809  were  restored 
to  the  owners,  and  821  were  returned  and  filed ;  13,964  con- 
tained books,  jewellery,  and  other  articles  of  property,  of  the  es- 
timated value  of  $8,500 — of  these  11,489  were  forwarded  for  de- 
livery and  9,911  were  delivered  to  their  owners ;  125,221  con- 
tained photographs,  postage-stamps,  and  articles  of  small  value, 
of  which  114,666  were  delivered  to  owners ;  2,068,842  without 
inclosures.  Thus  of  the  ordinary  dead-letters  forwarded  from 
this  office,  about  84  per  cent,  were  delivered,  and  of  the  valuable 
dead-letters  (classed  as  money  and  minor)  about  89  per  cent, 
were  delivered.  The  decrease  of  money-letters  received  (about 
3,000)  is  probably  owing  to  the  growing  use  of  money-orders 
for  the  transmission  of  small  sums." 

In  August,  1864,  Hon.   Montgomery  Blair  appointed 


THE  MONET-ORDER  SYSTEM.  405 

Dr.  C.  F.  Macdonald,  now  the  Superintendent  of  the 
Money-Order  Department,  and  J.  M.  McGrew,  now  Chief 
Clerk  of  the  Sixth  Auditor's  office,  commissioners  to  visit 
Quebec  and  examine  the  workings  of  the  Money-Order 
System  which  has  been  in  operation  in  Great  Britain  and 
Canada  for  several  years. 

The  system,  as  used  by  the  British  Government,  was 
modified  and  simplified  by  the  commissioners,  and  on  the 
8th  of  November,  1864,  the  Money-Order  System  of  the 
United  States  was  inaugurated,  with  138  offices  authorized 
to  issue  and  pay. 

During  the  part  of  the  fiscal  year  commencing  Novem- 
ber 8,  1864,  and  ending  June  30, 1865,' there  were  74,277 
money-orders  issued,  amounting  to  $1,360,122.52 ;  dur- 
ing next  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1866 — 138,297, 
amounting  to  $3,977,259.28;  during  next  fiscal  year 
ending  June  30,  1867 — 474,496,  amounting  to  $9,229,- 
327.72 ;  during  next  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1868 — 
831,937,  amounting  to  $16,197,858.47;  during  next  fis- 
cal year  ending  June  30,  1869 — 1,264,143,  amounting  to 
$24,848,058.93,'  during  next  fiscal  year  ending  June  30, 
1870—1,675,228,  amounting  to  $33,658,740,27;  during 
the  next  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1871—2,151,794, 
amounting  to  $42,164,118.03 ;  during  next  fiscal  year 
ending  June  30, 1872 — 2,573,349,  amounting  to  $48,515,- 
532.72. 

During  the  present  fiscal  year,  which  expired  June  30, 
1873,  the  number  of  orders  issued  will  reach  3,000,000, 
and  the  amount  will  be  over  $50,000,000. 

The  above  figures,  in  themselves,  contain  the  history  of 
the  money-order  system  from  its  beginning  to  the  pres- 
ent time.  During  the  war  one  letter  was  received  at  the 


406  TEN  YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

Dead-Letter  Office  which  contained  $12,000.  Rarely  now 
does  any  sum  inside  of  an  envelope  amount  to  $50.  As 
a  rule,  any  sum  over  $5  is  sent  by  money  order — at  least 
by  all  persons  who  have  any  reasonable  idea  of  what  is 
absolutely  safe. 


CHAPTER    XXXVIII. 

THE   DEPARTMENT    OF   THE   INTERIOR  —  UNCLE   SAM'S 
DOMESTIC  ARRANGEMENTS. 

Inadequate  Accommodation  in  Heaven — Defects  of  our  Great  Public  Build- 
ings— The  Public  Archives — Valuable  Documents  in  Jeopardy — Talk  of 
Moving  the  Capital — A  Dissension  of  a  Hundred  Years — Concerning 
Certain  Idiots — A  Day  in  the  Patent  Office — The  Inventive  Genius  of 
the  Country — Aggressions  of  the  Home  Department — A  Comprehensive 
Act  of  Congress — Seven  Divisions  of  the  Department  of  the  Interior — 
The  Disbursing  Division — Division  of  Indian  Affairs — Lands  and  Rail- 
roads— Pensions  and  Patents — Public  Documents— Division  of  Appoint- 
ments— The  Superintendent  of  the  Building — The  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior and  his  Subordinates — Pensions  and  their  Recipients — Indian 
Affairs — How  the  Savages  are  Treated — Over  Twenty-one  Million  of 
Dollars  Credited  to  their  Little  Account— The  Census  Bureau— A  Rather 
Big  Work— The  Bureau  of  Patents— What  is  a  Patent?— A  Self-support- 
ing Institution — A  Few  Dollars  Over — The  Use  Made  of  a  Certain  Brick 
Building — Secretary  Delano — An  Objection  Against  Him — How  Wick- 
edly he  Acted  to  the  Women  Clerks — "  The  Accustomed  Tyranny  of 
Men" — Cutting  Down  the  Ladies'  Salaries — Making  Places  for  Useful 
Voters — A  Sweet  Prayer  for  Delano's  Welfare — Something  about  Del- 
ano's Face. 

IT  has  always  been  a  mystery  to  me  how  Heaven  could 
continue  large  enough  for  all  the  people  who  are  try- 
ing to  get  into  it,  that  is,  if  the  human  race  is  to  keep  on 
being  tiorn. 

I  am  equally  puzzled  about  the  internal  spaces  of  our 
great  public  buildings.  When  designed,  they  were  sup- 
posed to  be  ample  for  centuries  to  come ;  but  with  the 
constant  creation  of  new  bureaus,  and  even  of  depart- 


408  TEN   YEAES    IN   WASHINGTON. 

merits,  with  the  fast  and  never-ceasing  accumulations  of 
records  in  every  branch  of  the  Government  service,  not  a 
public  building  in  Washington  is  now  large  enough  to  hold 
the  archives,  or  even  the  employes  belonging  to  its  own 
department.  Already  the  city  is  filled  with  temporary 
buildings,  in  which  the  overflow  of  the  various  depart- 
ments have  taken  refuge.  Even  now,  every  public  build- 
ing needs  a  duplicate  as  large  as  itself  to  hold  its  treas- 
ures, and  to  carry  on  fitly  the  intricate  machinery  of  its 
routine  service.  The  constant  cry  of  "  Capital  moving  " 
has  not  only  prevented  this,  but  has  caused  the  precious 
records  of  the  departments  to  be  packed  into  precarious 
and  insufficient  store-houses. 

The  public  archives  should  all  be  stored  in  fire-proof 
buildings.  The  destruction  of  the  titles  to  all  the  lands 
in  the  country  sold  by  the  Government  would  involve  a 
loss  greater  than  the  cost  of  all  Washington  city.  And 
yet,  as  they  are  stored  at  present,  any  morning  you  may 
hear  that  there  is  nothing  left  of  them  but  ashes. 

What  madness  to  talk  of  moving  the  Capital !  What 
idiots  to  breed  another  dissension  of  a  hundred  years  as 
to  where  another  Capital  shall  be,  instead  of  making 
the  most  and  best  of  the  majestic  one,  bought  at  such 
cost,  that  already  is! 

Well,  a  day  in  the  Patent-Office  has  caused  this  out- 
burst. This  building  was  built  for  the  protection  and 
display  of  the  inventive  genius  of  the  country.  But  that 
genius  finds  itself  fearfully  "  cabined  and  confined,"  and 
almost  crowded  out  by  the  elephantine  proportions  of 
the  Home  Department,  which  needs,  almost  beyond  any 
other,  a  vast  building  of  its  own,  all  to  itself.  At  first  a 
single  room  was  demanded  for  the  Secretary  of  the  Inte- 


INVENTIVE   GENIUS    "CORNERED."  409 

rior.  The  needs  of  his  department  were  such,  he  has 
gone  on  annexing  room  after  room  of  the  noble  Patent- 
Office,  till  its  "  inventive  genius  "  finds  itself  crowded  into 
a  very  small  corner  of  the  majestic  building  built  with 
the  proceeds  of  its  own  industry. 

March  3,  1849,  Congress  passed  an  act  to  establish  the 
Home  Department,  and  enacted  that  said  new  executive 
branch  of  the  Government  of  the  United  States  should  be 
called  the  Department  of  the  Interior,  and  that  the  head 
of  said  Department  should  be  called  Secretary  of  the 
Interior,  and  that  the  Secretary  should  be  placed  upon 
the  same  plane  with  other  Cabinet  officers. 

This  act  transferred  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior 
the  supervisory  power  over  the  office  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Patents,  exercised  before  by  the  Secretary  of  State ; 
the  same  power,  over  the  Commissioner  of  the  General 
Land-Office,  held  previously  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury ;  the  same  over  the  Bureau  of  Indian  Affairs, 
which  had  been  under  the  supervision  of  the  Secretary 
of  War  -,  the  same  over  the  acts  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Pensions,  who  had  previously  reported  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy ;  also  over  the  marshals  and  orders  of  taking 
and  returning  the  census,  previously  managed  by  the 
Secretary  of  State ;  the  same  over  accounts  of  marshals, 
clerks  and  officers  of  courts  of  the  United  States,  previ- 
ously exercised  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  The 
same  act  relieved  the  President  of  the  duty  of  supervising 
the  acts  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Buildings,  placing 
that  gentleman  under  the  directions  of  the  Interior  De- 
partment ;  giving  the  Secretary  control  over  the  Board 
of  Inspectors  and  the  Warden  of  the  Penitentiary  of  the 
District  of  Columbia. 


410  TEN  YEAKS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

Thus,  you  see,  the  Department  of  the  Interior  was 
made  up,  at  the  beginning,  of  slices  cut  from  each  one  of 
the  other  departments  of  the  Government.  Subsequent 
acts  of  legislation  have  added  new  duties  to  the  Home 
Department.  The  Department  of  Justice;  the  Depart- 
ment of  Metropolitan  Police;  the  accounts  of  marshals 
and  clerks  of  the  United  States  Courts,  and  of  matters 
pertaining  to  the  judiciary ;  the  discontinuance  of  the 
office  of  Commissioner  of  Public  Buildings,  and  the 
assignment  of  his  duties  to  the  Chief  Engineer  of  the 
Army,  with  the  duties  and  powers  heretofore  exercised 
by  the  Secretary  of  State  over  the  Governors  and  Secre- 
taries of  the  various  territories.  All  have  been  trans- 
ferred to  the  Department  of  the  Interior.  Admission  of 
indigent  insane  persons,  resident  in  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia, to  the  Insane  Asylum,  also  to  the  Columbia  In- 
stitution for  the  deaf  and  dumb,  and  to  the  National 
Deaf-mute  College,  and  of  blind  children  to  the  Colum- 
bia Institution,  all  are  only  obtained  through  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Interior. 

The  office  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  is  divided 
into  seven  divisions,  as  follows : 

The  "  Disbursing  Division,"  through  which  all  moneys, 
appropriated  for  the  entire  service  of  the  department,  pass. 

The  Division  of  the  Indian  Affairs ;  having  charge  of 
matters  pertaining  to  the  Indian  office,  and  the  various 
Indian  tribes. 

The  Division  of  Lands  and  Railroads ;  having  charge 
of  matters  pertaining  to  the  General  Land-Office,  and  the 
construction,  &c.,  of  land-grant  railroads. 

The  Division  of  Pensions  and  Patents ;  having  charge 
of  matters  pertaining  to  those  offices. 


THE   DEPARTMENT   OF   THE   INTERIOR.  411 

The  Division  of  Public  Documents ;  having  charge  of 
the  distribution  of  the  public  documents  and  the  De- 
partment Library. 

The  Division  of  Appointments ;  having  charge  of  all 
matters  pertaining  to  the  force  of  the  department,  the 
preparing,  recording,  etc.,  of  Presidential  appointments 
under  the  Interior  Department. 

The  Superintendent  of  the  building ;  having  charge  of 
all  repairs,  the  oversight  of  the  laboring  force,  heating 
apparatus,  etc. 

The  head  of  the  Department  is  the  Secretary  of  the 
Interior.  His  subordinates  are  the  Commissioners  of  the 
Public  Lands,  Patents,  Indian  Affairs,  and  Pensions,  and 
the  Superintendent  of  the  Census.  The  Secretary  is 
charged  with  the  general  supervision  of  matters  relating 
to  the  public  lands,  the  pensions  granted  by  the  Govern- 
ment, the  management  of  the  Indian  tribes,  the  granting 
patents,  the  management  of  the  Agricultural  Bureau,  of 
the  lead  and  other  mines  of  the  United  States,  the 
affairs  of  the  Penitentiary  of  the  District  of  Columbia, 
the  overland-rowfes  to  the  Pacific,  including  the  great 
Pacific  Railways,  the  taking  of  the  Census,  and  the  direc^ 
tion  of  the  acts  of  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Buildings, 
the  Insane  Hospital  for  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
the  Army  and  Navy,  is  also  under  his  control. 

The  first  Secretary  of  the  Interior  was  Thomas  Ewing, 
of  Ohio,  appointed  by  President  Taylor ;  and  Columbus 
Delano,  of  Ohio,  is  the  present  Secretary. 

The  General  Land-Office  was  established  as  a  branch 
of  the  Treasury  Department  by  act  of  Congress,  approved 
April  25,  1812,  which  authorized  the  appointment  of  a 
Commissioner,  at  a  salary  of  $3,000  per  annum,  and  the 


412 


TEN  YEAES   IN  WASHINGTON. 


employment  of  a  Chief  Clerk,  and  such  other  clerks  as 
might  be  necessary  to  perform  the  work,  at  an  annual 
compensation  not  to  exceed,  in  the  whole,  $7,000. 

By  the  act  of  July  4,  1836,  the  office  was  reorganized 
and  the  force  increased.  The  number  of  clerks  now  em- 
ployed is  one  hundred  and  fifty-four ;  and  even  this  force 
is  not  sufficient  to  meet  the  requirements  of  a  constantly 
growing  business.  Upon  the  creation  of  the  Interior  De- 
partment, in  1849,  the  Land-Office  was  placed  under  its 
jurisdiction. 

The  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land-Office  is  charged 
with  the  duty  of  supervising  the  surveys  of  private 
land  claims,  and  also  the  survey  and  sale  of  the  public 
lands  of  the  United  States.  At  present  this  supervision 
extends  to  seventeen  surveying  districts  and  ninety-two 
local  land-offices. 

The  following  table  exhibits  the  progress  of  surveys 
and  the  disposal  of  public  lands  since  the  fiscal  year,  end- 
ing June  30,  1861: 


Fiscal  Year 
ending 
June  30. 

£3  a 

>  -  o 

I.P 

II 

Cost  of  Survey. 

Number  of  Acres 
Surveyed. 

Number  of  Acres 
Disposed  of. 

1862 

9 

58 

$219,000  00 

2,673,132 

1,337,922.00 

1863 

11 

54 

151,840  00 

2,147,981 

2,966,698.00 

1864 

10 

53 

172,906  00 

4,315,954 

3,238,865.00 

1865 

10 

53 

170,721  00 

4,161,778 

4,513,738.00 

1866 

10 

61 

186,389  88 

4,267,037 

4,629,312.00 

1867 

12 

62 

423,416  22 

10,808,314 

7,041,114.00 

1868 

13 

68 

325,779  50 

10,170,656 

6,665,742.00 

1869 

12 

66 

497,471  00 

10,822,812 

7,666,151.00 

1870 

17 

81 

560,210  00 

18,165,278 

8,095,413.00 

1871 

17 

83 

683,910  00 

22,016,607 

10,765,705.00 

1872 

17 

92 

1,019,378  66 

29,450,939 

11,864,975.64 

THE    PENSION   LIST.  413 

This  shows  an  increase  of  the  number  of  surveyors' 
general  from  nine  to  seventeen,  and  land-offices  from 
fifty-eight  to  ninety-two,  and  an  increase  in  the  annual 
survey  from  2,673,132  acres  to  29,458,939  acres,  and  an 
increase  in  the  number  of  acres  disposed  of  from  1,337,- 
932  to  11,864,975.64,  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1872. 

The  Land-Office  audits  its  own  accounts.  It  is  also 
charged  with  laying  off  land-grants  made  to  the  various 
railroad  schemes  by  Congress.  The  mines  belonging  to 
the  Government  are  also  in  charge  of  this  office. 

The  Commissioner  of  Pensions  examines  and  adjudi- 
cates all  claims  arising  under  the  various  and  numerous 
laws  passed  by  Congress,  granting  bounty-lands  or  pen- 
sions for  military  and  naval  services  rendered  the  United 
States  at  various  times.  The  Rebellion  greatly  increased 
the  pension  list. 

The  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  has  charge  of  all 
the  matters  relating  to  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  frontier. 
The  Government  has  at  sundry  times  purchased  the  lands 
of  various  tribes  residing  east  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
and  has  settled  the  Indians  upon  reservations  in  the  ex- 
treme West.  For  some  of  these  lands  a  perpetual  annu- 
ity was  granted  the  tribes ;  for  others,  an  annuity  for  a 
certain  specified  time ;  and  for  others  still,  a  temporary 
annuity,  payable  during  the  pleasure  of  the  President  or 
Congress.  The  total  sum  thus  pledged  to  these  tribes 
amounts  to  nearly  twenty-one  and  a  half  millions.  It  is 
funded  at  five  per  cent.,  the  interest  alone  being  paid  to 
the  tribes ;  this  interest  amounts  to  over  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  It  is  paid  in  various  ways — in  money, 
in  provisions,  and  in  clothing.  The  Commissioner  has 
charge  of  all  these  dealings  with  the  savages. 


414  TEN   TEAES    IN   WASHINGTON. 

Prior  to  Act  of  Congress  of  June  30,  1834,  organizing 
the  "  Department  of  Indian  Affairs,"  Indian  matters  were 
managed  by  a  Bureau,  with  a  superintendent  in  charge, 
under  the  direction  and  control  of  the  War  Department, 
and  under  the  organization,  the  department  or  office 
continued  with  the  "War  Department,  until  March  3, 
1849,  when  Congress  created  the  Department  of  the  In- 
terior, and  gave  the  supervisory  and  appellate  power,  ex- 
ercised by  the  Secretary  of  War  in  relation  to  the  acts  of 
the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  to  the  Secretary  of 
the  new  department. 

A  "  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs  "  was  first  author- 
ized by  Act  of  Congress,  dated  July  9, 1832,  and  the  same 
law  required  the  Secretary  of  War  to  prescribe  a  new 
set  of  regulations  as  to  the  mode  in  which  the  business 
of  the  Commissioner  should  be  performed. 

E.  Herring  was  the  first  Commissioner,  and  his  success- 
ors have  been  as  follows:  C.  A.  Harris,  appointed  in 
1836  ;  T.  H.  Crawford,  1838 ;  Wm.  Medell,  1845 ;  0. 
Brown,  1849 ;  L.  Lee,  1850 ;  G.  W.  Monypenny,  1853  ; 
J.  W.  Denver,  1857 ;  C.  E.  Mix,  1858 ;  A.  B.  Greenwood, 
1859 ;  W.  P.  Dole,  1861 ;  D.  N.  Cooley,  1865 ;  L.  V. 
Bogy,  1866;  N.  G.  Taylor,  1867;  E.  S.  Parker,  1869; 
F.  E.  Walker,  1871 ;  and  E.  P.  Smith,  1873. 

The  Indian  Department  comprehended,  under  the 
new  regulations  provided  for  by  the  law  of  July  9,  1832, 
four  superintendencies,  thirteen  agencies,  and  thirteen 
sub-agencies,  having  charge  of  about  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  Indians,  inhabiting  some  of  the  States  west 
of  the  Mississippi,  and  also  what  was  then  held  to  be 
"  Indian  Country,"  defined  by  the  first  section  of  the  law 
of  June  30, 1834,  regulating  trade  and  intercourse  with 


THE    INDIAN   DEPARTMENT.  415 

Indian  tribes,  to  be  "  all  that  part  of  the  United  States 
west  of  the  Mississippi  and  not  within  the  State  of  Mis- 
souri and  Louisiana,  or  the  Territory  of  Arkansas,  and, 
also,  that  part  of  the  United  States  east  of  the  Mississippi 
River  and  not  within  any  State  to  which  the  Indian  title 
has  not  been  extinguished." 

By  subsequent  acquisition  of  territory  from  Mexico, 
the  area  of  Indian  country  became  greatly  extended,  with 
a  consequent  large  addition  to  the  Indian  population 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Indian  Department.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  current  year,  the  Department  con- 
sisted of  eight  superintendencies,  seventy  agencies  and 
special  agencies,  and  three  sub-agencies.  At  present 
there  are  four  superintendencies,  four  having  been  abol- 
ished by  act  of  Congress,  February  14,  1873,  providing  in 
lieu  thereof  five  Indian  Inspectors,  whose  duty  it  is  to  visit 
every  superintendency  and  agency,  and  examine  into  the 
affairs  of  the  same,  as  often  as  once  or  twice  a  year,  and 
to  report  their  proceedings;  sixty-eight  agencies,  nine 
special  agencies  and  three  sub-agencies,  with  an  Indian 
population,  approximately,  of  300,000,  exclusive  of  those 
in  Alaska,  estimated  at  between  50,000  and  75,000. 

In  the  Indian  service  there  is  also  a  Board  of  "  Indian 
Commissioners,"  nine  in  number,  authorized  by  act  of 
Congress,  approved  April  10,  1869,  men  eminent  for 
their  intelligence  and  philanthropy,  who  serve  without 
compensation,  the  object  of  the  Commission  being  to  co- 
operate with  the  President  in  efforts  to  maintain  peace 
among  the  Indians,  bring  them  upon  reservations,  relieve 
their  necessities,  and  to  encourage  them  in  attempts 
at  self-support. 

The  Census  Bureau  is  now  a  permanent  branch  of  the 


416  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Department  of  the  Interior.  It  is  in  charge  of  a  super- 
intendent, and  is  assigned  the  duty  of  compiling  the  statis- 
tics which  constitute  the  Census  of  the  Republic.  This 
enumeration  is  made  every  ten  years.  Some  idea  of  the 
magnitude  of  the  task  may  be  gained  from  the  fact  that 
the  tabulation  and  publication  of  the  census  of  1870  were 
not  completed  in  January,  1873. 

Tiie  Bureau  of  Patents  is  a  part  of  the  Department  of 
the  Interior,  but  is  in  all  its  proportions  and  features  so 
vast  and  imposing,  that  it  is  almost  a  separate  depart- 
ment, as,  indeed,  it  must  become  erelong.  It  is  in 
charge  of  a  Commissioner  of  Patents,  who  is  appointed 
by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  by  and  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate.  It  is  intrusted  with 
the  duty  of  granting  letters  patent,  securing  to  the  in- 
ventor the  control  of  and  the  reward  from  articles  bene- 
ficial to  civilization.  It  was  formerly  a  part  of  the  Treas- 
ury Department,  and  is  one  of  the  best  known  branches 
of  the  Government. 

Patents  are  not,  as  some  persons  suppose,  monopolies, 
but  are  protections  granted  to  individuals  as  rewards  for, 
and  incentives  to  discoveries  and  inventions  of  all  kinds 
pertaining  to  the  useful  arts.  This  Bureau  is  allowed  to 
charge  for  these  letters  of  protection  only  the  cost  of  in- 
vestigating and  registering  the  invention.  It  is  a  self-sup- 
porting institution,  its  receipts  being  largely  in  excess  of 
its  expenditures. 

If  you  have  traced  the  many  Bureaus  of  the  Interior 
Department  thus  far,  you  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  it  needs  a  public  building  all  to  itself,  and  that  it 
should  be  an  immense  one.  A  large  brick  building  op- 
posite the  Patent-Office,  on  G  street,  is  already  exclu- 
sively occupied  by  the  Bureau  of  Education. 


THE  SUPREME  VIETUE  OF  A  PUBLIC  SERVANT.  417 

The  present  Secretary  of  the  Interior  is  Hon.  Columbus 
Delano,  of  Ohio,  a  man  who  has  been  long  in  public  life, 
first  as  Member  of  Congress  from  Ohio,  then  as  Commis- 
sioner of  Internal  Revenue,  now  a«  Secretary  of  the  Inte- 
rior. I  have  but  one  objection  to  make  to  Mr.  Delano  in 
the  position  which  he  now  holds.  He  found  twelve-hundred- 
dollar-positions  in  his  department  filled,  as  they  had  been 
from  the  beginning,  by  women.  He  degrades  them  to  nine- 
hundred-dollar-clerkships,  to  make  place  for  his  voters. 
Judging  by  the  course  he  pursues,  we  may  believe  that  he 
is  of  the  same  opinion  as  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  that 
"  four  hundred  dollars  per  year  are  enough  for  any  woman 
to  earn,"  unless  she  should  be  a  Delano !  I  hope  that 
Ohio  will  reward  him  by  not  giving  him  the  desire  of  his 
heart  and  making  him  Senator,  till  he  practices  justice 
as  the  supreme  virtue  of  a  public  servant. 

Columbus  Delano  has  a  face  which  nature  never  weak- 
ened by  cutting  it  down  to  absolute  fineness,  but  added 
to  its  power  by  leaving  it  a  little  in  the  rough.  Iron- 
gray  hair,  shaggy  eyebrows  beetling  over  a  pair  of 
straight-forward,  out-looking  gray  eyes,  make  the  more 
prominent  features  of  a  face  which  you  willingly  believe 
in  as  that  of  a  strong  and  honorable  man. 


27 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

THE  PENSION  BUREAU—  HOW  GOVERNMENT  PAYS  ITS 
SERVANTS. 

The  Generosity  of  Congress  to  Itself—  How  Four  Hundred  Acts  of  Con- 
gress were  Passed  —  How  Pensions  have  Increased  and  Multiplied  —  Sneer- 
ing at  Red-Tape  —  The  Division  of  Labor  —  Scrutinizing  Petitions—  A 
Heavy  Paper  Jacket  —  The  Judicial  Division  —  Invalids,  Widows,  and  Mi- 
nors —  The  Examiner  of  Pensions  —  The  Difficulties  of  his  Position  —  Un- 
satisfactory Work—  How  Claims  are  Entertained  and  Tested  —  What  is 
Recorded  in  the  Thirty  Enormous  Volumes  —  How  many  Genuine  Cases 
are  Refused  —  One  of  the  Inconveniences  of  Ignorance  —  The  Claim-  Agent 
Gobbles  up  the  Lion's  Share  —  An  Extensive  Correspondence  —  How 
Claims  are  Mystified,  and  Money  is  Wasted  —  The  "  Reviewer's  "  Work  — 
The  "Rejected  Files  "—The  "Admitted  Files  "—Seventy-Five  Thou- 
sand Claims  Pending  —  Very  Ancient  Claimants  —  The  Bounty  Land  Di- 
vision —  The  Reward  of  Fourteen  Days'  Service  —  The  Sum  Total  of 
what  the  Government  has  Paid  in  Pensions  —  How  the  Pensions  are  Paid 
—  The  Finance  Division  —  The  Largest  and  the  Smallest  Pension  Office  — 
The  Miscellaneous  Branch  —  Investigating  Frauds  —  A  Poor  "  Dependent  " 
Woman  with  Forty  Thousand  Dollars  —  How  "  Honest  and  Respectable  " 
People  Defraud  the  Government  —  The  Medical  Division  —  Examining  In- 
valids—The Restoration-Desk—  The  Appeal-Desk—  The  Final-  Desk—  The 
Work  that  Has  Been  Done  —  One  Hundred  and  Fifty  Thousand  People 
Grumbling  —  Letter  of  an  Ancient  Claimant  —  The  Wrath  of  a  Pugna- 
cious Captain. 


OMPARED  to  the  generosity  with  which  it  rewards 
itself,  Congress  doles  out  most  scanty  recompense 
even  to  the  Government's  most  faithful  and  long-suffering 
servants.  Nevertheless,  that  it  does  not  neglect  or  ignore 
them  altogether,  the  annals  of  the  Pension  Bureau  accu- 
rately attest. 


HOW   PENSIONS   AKE   GRANTED.  419 

The  first  Act  promising  pensions  to  those  disabled  by 
war,  was  passed  in  the  next  month  after  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  August  26, 1776.  On  September  16, 1776, 
specified  grants  of  land  were  promised  to  those  who  should 
enter  the  service,  and  continue  to  its  close ;  and  in  case  of 
their  death,  to  their  heirs. 

Under  these  early  enactments,  the  mode  prescribed  by 
law,  to  decide  who  were  entitled  to  pensions,  was  to  leave 
the  State  Legislatures  to  decide  who  should  justly  receive 
pensions.  Having  decided,  the  State  Legislatures  paid 
the  pensioners,  and  were  reimbursed  by  the  general  Gov- 
ernment. 

Afterward,  this  method  gave  way  to  another,  requiring 
the  Judges  of  district,  and  circuit-courts,  to  decide  the 
equity  of  the  demand,  and  to  pay  it,  as  had  formerly  been 
done,  by  the  Legislatures  of  the  several  States.  These 
payments  were  not  made,  however,  until  after  the  lists  re- 
ported by  the  Judges  had  been  verified  by  comparison  with 
the  rolls  on  file  in  the  War  Department,  when  they  were 
reported  by  the  Secretary  of  War  to  Congress,  and  placed 
on  the  pension-lists,  by  a  resolution  of  that  body.  This 
mode  was  found  to  be  too  slow  in  detecting  frauds,  and  Feb- 
ruary 25, 1793,  an  Act  was  passed,  prescribing  rules  to  be 
observed  by  the  courts  in  the  investigation  of  claims,  and 
providing  that  the  evidence  upon  which  the  decision  was 
based  should  accompany  the  report.  This  Act  prevailed, 
with  slight  modifications,  until  March  3, 1819,  when  an  Act 
was  passed,  authorizing  the  Secretary  of  War  to  place  on 
the  pension-rolls,  without  reporting  the  lists  to  Congress. 

This  authority  was  exercised  by  the  Secretary  of  War, 
until  March  2,  1833,  when  a  distinct  Bureau  of  the  Gov- 
ernment was  established  for  the  adjustment  of  pension 


420  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

claims.  It  was  provided  for  in  the  section  of  a  bill,  which 
made  an  appropriation  for  the  civil  and  diplomatic  ex- 
pense of  the  Government,  for  the  year.  This  section  said : 
"A  Commissioner  of  Pensions  shall  be  appointed  by  the 
President  and  the  Senate,  who  shall  receive  a  salary  of 
twenty-five  hundred  dollars,  which  is  hereby  appropri- 
ated." This  office  was  perpetuated  for  many  years  by 
biennial  enactments,  the  last  providing  that  it  should  con- 
tinue until  further  legislation  on  the  subject. 

Since  the  passage  of  the  first  Act,  by  the  old  Congress  in 
1776,  there  have  been  over  four  hundred  distinct  Acts  re- 
lating to  pensions  for  military  and  naval  services,  and  for 
bounty-land  rewarding  such  services,  enacted  by  Congress. 
Instead  of  the  small  pension-lists  transmitted  by  the 
courts  of  the  country,  through  the  Secretary  of  "War  to 
Congress,  the  tens  of  thousands  of  pension-claims,  pre- 
sented to  the  Government,  under  the  various  laws  which 
relate  to  them,  now  require  the  constant  services  of  more 
than  three  hundred  clerks  in  the  Pension  Bureau,  super- 
vised by  the  Commissioner  of  Pensions. 

It  is  the  dual  duty  of  this  Bureau,  to  protect  private 
interests,  and  to  secure  the  enforcement  of  the  law.  The 
claims  are  infinite  and  often  conflicting;  the  provisions  of 
law  manifold;  and  people  unfamiliar  with  the  immense 
demand  upon  such  an  office,  sneer  or  smile,  or  weep  over 
the  length  of  the  "red-tape"  routine,  through  which  its 
cases  are  so  often  "long  drawn  out."  Persons  waiting 
outside  the  Bureau,  can  not  comprehend  the  requirements 
or  exigencies  of  a  business  demanding  the  employment 
of  so  large  a  force  of  actors,  or  touching  the  springs  of 
so  many  public  and  private  interests.  Says  one  who 
knows :  "  Far  better  the  delays  of  red  tape,  than  the  inex- 


"HINTS  TO  CORRESPONDENTS."  421 

tricable  confusion,  and  total  inability  to  transact  business, 
which  would  be  the  inevitable  result  of  a  business  system 
less  minute  and  stringent." 

The  Pension  Bureau  is  divided  into  four  divisions,  viz: 
the  Mail  Division,  the  Judicial,  the  Financial,  and  the 
Miscellaneous. 

The  Mail  Division  is  charged  with  the  receiving,  read- 
ing, distributing  to  the  proper  desks,  all  the  mail.  Every 
original  application,  every  piece  of  additional  evidence, 
every  communication,  of  whatever  nature,  is  stamped 
with  the  date  of  receipt,  and,  with  the  exception  of  let- 
ters of  inquiry,  they  are  entered  on  the  records,  which 
show  from  whom  received,  when  received,  and  to  whom, 
delivered. 

"  It  requires  careful  examination  of  the  papers,  a  thor- 
ough knowledge  of  the  office,  and  the  closest  analysis,  to 
determine  the  proper  destination  of  each  communication. 
Many  writers  are  obscure,  many  misstate  their  business, 
through  ignorance  or  carelessness,  and  to  quickly  compre- 
hend the  import  of  all  papers,  requires  a  keen  eye  and  a 
ready  mind. 

"Persons  communicating  with  the  Office,  should  re- 
member this,  and  to  insure  a  correct  distribution  of  their 
mail,  should,  in  all  cases,  indorse  upon  the  outside  of  the 
envelope,  the  number  of  the  claim  referred  to,  the  name 
of  the  claimant,  and  the  nature  of  the  claim. 

"In  this  Division,  claims  are  also  prepared  for  the  files, 
by  having  a  heavy  paper  jacket  placed  round  them,  upon 
which  is  indorsed  the  Act  under  which  it  is  filed,  the  de- 
scription of  the  party  claiming,  their  address,  also  the  ad- 
dress of  the  attorney,  if  one  appears  in  the  claim." 

The  Judicial  Division  is  charged  with  an  application  of 


422  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

the  law  to  the  evidence,  and  the  determining  of  the  right 
of  the  applicant  to  the  pension.  This  office  is  divided 
into  three  grand  divisions — invalid,  widows,  and  minors. 
The  first  embraces  all  claims  preferred  by  surviving  sol- 
diers ;  the  second,  all  claims  based  upon  the  service  and 
death  of  soldiers  and  sailors ;  the  third,  those  of  minors. 

An  Examiner  of  Pensions  does  not  sit  upon  a  bed 
of  roses — or,  if  he  does,  it  is  full  of  thorns.  So  various 
and  minute  are  the  provisions  of  law,  applicable  to  the 
cases  under  his  consideration,  so  numerous  are  the  rulings 
of  the  office,  and  the  decisions  of  the  Heads  of  Depart- 
ments, and  of  the  Bureau,  with  the  opinion  of  the  At- 
torney-General added,  all  bearing  upon  this  claim,  it 
demands  the  most  exhaustive  examination,  the  keenest 
discrimination,  and  the  most  wise  judgment,  to  reach  a 
final  just  conclusion.  And  when  his  conclusion  is  reached, 
it  is  not  final. 

In  the  Judicial  Division,  are  filed  all  pending  claims. 
These  files  are  arranged  with  reference  to  the  initial  let- 
ter of  the  soldier's  surname,  and  are  divided  into  sections 
proportioned  to  the  magnitude  of  the  letter  of  the  al- 
phabet. Upon  the  receipt  of  jacketed  claims  from  the 
mail  division,  the  first  step  is  to  see  if  the  party,  making 
application,  ever  filed  a  claim  before,  and  this  is  ascer- 
tained by  examining  the  "  original  records." 

These  records  fill  thirty  enormous  volumes,  and  contain 
three  hundred  and  eighty-three  thousand  applications 
that  have  been  filed  under  the  act  of  July  14, 1862.  All 
entries  are  made  therein  with  reference  to  the  first  three 
letters  of  the  soldier'  s  surname,  and  only  by  this  subdi- 
vision of  names,  affording  two  thousand  eight  hundred 
combinations,  can  convenient  reference  to  any  given  claim 


INVESTIGATING  CLAIMS.  423 

be  had ;  and  even  when  so  divided,  the  examination  of  the 
greater  combination  requires  considerable  labor.  For  in- 
stance, in  two  hundred  thousand  entries  under  W.  I.  L., 
there  will  be  three  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  en- 
tries ;  and  under  S.  M.  I.  you  will  find  two  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  Smiths.  If  the  result  of  this  exam- 
ination affords  no  evidence  of  a  prior  application  by  the 
same  person,  after  noting  all  other  applications  based  upon 
the  service  of  the  same  soldier,  the  claims  are  numbered 
in  numerical  order  and  placed  upon  the  record,  which  in- 
cludes a  full  description  thereof,  and  the  recorded  claims 
are  then  placed  in  the  files,  to  await  examination  in  the 
order  of  their  receipt. 

"When  they  are  reached,  the  examiner's  duties  begin. 
He  first  searches  for  such  recorded  evidence  as  can  be 
found  in  any  of  the  Departments  of  the  Government. 
From  these  he  notes  all  omissions,  and  points  unsupported, 
and  calls  upon  the  claimant,  or  his  attorney,  for  corrobo- 
rative evidence  of  the  statements  made  in  the  declaration. 
He  is  guided  in  his  requirements  by  the  hundreds  of  rul- 
ings applicable  to  the  smallest  details  of  the  various  kinds 
of  claims.  All  the  evidence  furnished  in  response  must 
comply  with  the  minutest  demand  of  the  law ;  the  law  of 
evidence  as  applied  in  courts,  and  the  express  require- 
ments of  the  law  under  which  the  pension  is  claimed,  are 
both  brought  to  bear  in  the  consideration  of  the  points  to 
be  met,  and  the  testimony  offered  in  proof. 

You  will  not  be  astonished  to  be  told  that  very  often 
they  are  not  met,  or  that  in  thousands  of  just  cases  the 
testimony  is  unequal  to  the  gradgrind  requirements  of 
the  law.  A  want  of  a  knowledge  of  the  provisions  of 
the  law — more  than  of  willful  knavery — is  the  great 


424  TEN   TEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

acknowledged  difficulty  with  which  the  Office  has  to  con- 
tend. Many  a  poor  sinner,  who  lost  his  leg  or  arm,  or 
carries  a  bullet  in  him,  received  in  his  country's  battles, 
knows  all  about  the  minus  members,  the  battles,  and 
the  bullet,  and  not  an  atom  about  "  the  provisions  of  the 
law,"  or  the  inextricable  windings  of  official  red-tape. 
Because  his  knowledge  is  of  so  one-sided  a  character,  he* 
finds  it  no  easy  matter  to  get  the  governmental  reward 
for  that  buried  leg  or  arm ;  and  by  the  time  all  "  the  re- 
quirements of  the  law"  have  been  slowly  beaten  into  his 
brains,  the  greater  portion  of  his  pension  is  pocketed  by 
the  claim-agent  who  showed  him  how  to  get  it. 

All  these  provisions  and  safeguards  of  the  law  are  said 
to  be  necessary,  to  protect  the  Government  against  fraud- 
ulent claims.  Perhaps  they  are ;  but  that  makes  them  no 
less  hard,  or  ofttimes  unjust  "to  the  soldier  and  widow" 
who,  in  writing  a  letter,  are  as  ignorant  as  babies  of  "  the 
requirements  of  the  law."  Under  these  requirements, 
and  with  the  utter  ignorance  of  common  people  of  tech- 
nical terms,  and  judicial  statements,  it  is  not  strange  that 
"  a  large  percentage  of  the  evidence  offered,  is  imper- 
fectly prepared."  A  great  deal  more  is  deficient  in  sub- 
stance, or  suspected  of  fraud. 

The  correspondence  from  this  Division,  stating  objec- 
tions, requiring  further  proof,  and  elucidating  doubtful 
points,  amounts  to  hundreds  of  letters  a  day.  The  long 
delay  inevitable,  is  said  to  be  the  fault  of  the  system. 
"Ex-parte  evidence  is  the  criminal."  "Were  means  af- 
forded for  a  cross-examination  of  all  applicants  and  wit- 
nesses, these  difficulties  and  delays  would  disappear.  One- 
half  of  the  amount  now  taken  from  the  pockets  of 
pensioners,  to  compensate  agents  for  procuring  their  pen- 


"ACCEPTED"  AND  "KEJECTED."  425 

sions,  would  pay  the  entire  cost  of  such  a  system,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  thousands  of  dollars  paid  from  the  Treas- 
ury upon  fraudulent  claims,  that  would  be  saved." 

When  the  examiner  has  ended  his  researches,  he  pre- 
pares a  brief  of  the  evidence,  on  which  he  bases  his  ad- 
mission, or  rejection,  of  the  claim.  He  closes  it  with  a 
statement  of  his  decision,  showing  from  what  date,  and 
at  what  rate  admitted,  or,  if  rejected,  the  cause  therefor, 
and  signs  his  name,  as  examiner. 

This  action  is  entered  in  a  record.  The  case  is  taken 
from  out  the  file  of  pending  claims,  and  is  placed  in  the 
hands  of  a  clerk,  who  is  called  the  "Reviewer."  He  is  se- 
lected for  this  task,  for  his  superior  judgment,  and  for 
his  familiarity  with  the  law,  and  the  rules  of  office.  He 
"begins  again,"  goes  over  the  entire  action  of  the  exam- 
iner, goes  through  the  entire  evidence,  in  order  to  be 
able  to  approve,  or  disprove,  the  examiner's  decision.  If 
he  approves,  the  case  passes  on  to  the  Chief  of  the  Di- 
vision, for  his  approval,  which,  except  in  unusual  cases, 
is  pro  forma.  From  his  desk  the  case  goes  to  the  Cer- 
tificate Section,  for  issue.  There  it  receives  its  certificate 
and  approved  brief,  decorated  with  which  it  departs  to 
the  Commissioner's  desk,  there  to  receive  his  final  and 
crowning  signature,  and  the  grand  seal  of  the  Depart- 
ment. If  the  claim  is  a  rejected  one,  and  its  rejection 
receives  the  approval  of  the  receiver,  it  is  cast  into  the 
outer  darkness  of  the  "rejected  files."  Here  it  is  subject 
to  an  appeal  to  the  Secretary,  and  may  be  borne  forth 
again  to  the  light,  upon  the  presentation  of  new  and  ma- 
terial evidence. 

After  the  triumphant  claim  has  received  its  certificate, 
it  is  treated  to  a  new  coat  of  a  wrapper,  upon  whose 


426  TEN  YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

back  a  certificate-number,  and  its  history,  is  endorsed.  It 
is  then  entered  upon  the  admitted  records.  After  it  has 
been  reported  to  the  Pension  Agent,  Finance  Division,  to 
the  Third  Auditor  of  the  Treasury,  and  to  the  Second 
Comptroller,  it  is  placed  on  the  "admitted  files." 

Seventy-five  thousand  pending  claims  are  now  on  file 
in  these  two  divisions.  They  are  slowly  reduced  in  num- 
ber, and  the  receipt  of  new  claims  equals  the  disposal  of 
the  old  ones.  This  statement  does  not  include  the  adjust- 
ment of  claims  filed  under  the  act  of  February  14, 1871, 
granting  pensions  to  survivors  of  the  war  of  1812,  who 
served  sixty  days,  and  to  their  widows.  Their  claims 
have  been  organized  into  a  separate  division,  in  which 
a  force  of  fifty  clerks  has  been  constantly  employed 
since  its  organization,  May,  1871.  This  division  is  known 
as  the  "1812  Division,"  and  strenuous  efforts  are  made 
to  reach  very  early  decisions  in  all  its  cases,  the  extreme 
age  of  the  applicants  making  it  necessary — if  their  pen- 
sion is  to  reach  them  "this  side  of  Jordan." 

In  this  division,  the  claims  are  carried  through  their 
entire  process,  from  the  application  to  the  placing  of  the 
pensioner's  name  on  the  rolls. 

The  Bounty-Land  Division  forms  a  part  of  the  Judicial 
branch.  Herein  all  claims  for  bounty-land,  filed  under  the 
act  of  March  3, 1855,  which  is  the  latest  general  provision, 
are  adjusted.  The  modus  operandi  of  ob taming  land-grants 
is  nearly  identical  with  the  process  of  obtaining  a  pension. 

Under  the  act  of  1855,  all  persons  who  served  fourteen 
days,  either  in  the  army  or  navy,  are  entitled  to  one  hun- 
dred arid  sixty  acres,  and  those  who  were  actually  en- 
gaged in  battle,  though  their  services  were  less  than  four- 
teen days,  are  entitled  to  the  same. 


THE   PENSIONEKS    OF   GOVERNMENT.  427 

Under  the  various  laws  governing  these  land  grants, 
warrants  representing  73,932,451  acres  have  been  issued, 
which,  estimated  at  $1.25  per  acre,  amounts  to  $92,415,- 
5C3.75,  which,  added  to  $313,170,412.77  that  has  been 
paid  since  the  beginning  of  the  Government,  as  pension, 
makes  a  total  expenditure  of  $405,585,976.52,  which  has 
been  paid  in  gratuities  to  the  defenders  of  the  Republic. 

Where  the  Judicial  Branch  ends  in  the  certificate  of  a 
pension,  the  Financial  Branch  begins.  The  rolls  reported 
by  those  divisions  are  entered  in  the  agency  registers, 
which  are  arranged  to  show  payments  for  several  years, 
and  the  agents'  quarterly  accounts  of  disbursements  are 
compared  with  these  registers,  and  errors  noted. 

There  are  now  upon  the  United  States  pension  rolls  the 
names  of  232,229  pensioners,  who  are  paid  quarterly 
through  fifty-seven  pension  agents.  When  we  remember 
that  the  accounts  of  all  these  agents,  for  these  tens  of 
thousands  of  names,  are  adjusted  and  reported  within  the 
short  space  of  three  months,  it  is  not  difficult  to  realize 
the  amount  of  labor  involved. 

The  Finance  Division  is  charged  with  all  correspondence 
with  the  pension  agents,  to  suspend  and  resume  payments, 
to  drop  from  the  rolls  (in  which  case  the  auditor  and  con- 
troller must  also  be  notified),  the  payment  of  accrued 
pensions  to  heirs  and  legal  representatives ;  restorations, 
under  the  act  of  July  27, 1868,  where  a  pension  has  been 
unclaimed  for  three  years ;  the  transfer  of  payments  from 
one  agency  to  another ;  the  issue  of  duplicate  certificates 
in  lieu  of  those  lost  or  destroyed.  All  these,  and  many, 
many  other  things  are  required  at  the  hands  of  the  gen- 
tlemen employed  therein.  The  act  of  June  8,  1872, 
granted  increase  to  pensioners  of  the  first,  second  and 


428  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

third  grades ;  and  this  Division,  after  the  passage  of  the 
Act  and  before  the  quarterly  payment  of  September 
4,  following,  received,  examined  and  issued  9,237  certifi- 
cates granting  the  increase.  Of  the  agencies  disbursing 
pension-money,  there  are  ten  whose  payments  exceed 
$100,000,000  per  annum.  Of  these,  Boston  is  the  largest, 
paying  out  more  than  $1,800,000.  The  smallest  amount 
paid  by  any  agency  is  that  at  Vancouver,  Washington 
Territory,  which  disburses  less  than  $2,500  per  annum. 

The  Miscellaneous  Branch  covers  many  features  too 
minute  to  be  brought  into  this  sketch.  Among  the  more 
important  is  its  Special  Service  Division.  This  is  occupied 
with  the  investigation  of  all  claims  in  which  fraud  is  sus- 
pected. It  prosecutes  and  convicts  all  persons  whose 
guilt  is  proved.  Congress  annually  appropriates  a  con- 
siderable sum  to  pay  the  expenses  of  such  investigations, 
which  tends  largely  to  lessen  fraudulent  practices  against 
the  Government.  By  means  of  this  fund  the  Office  is 
enabled  to  keep  a  large  number  of  special  agents  em- 
ployed, who  are  charged  with  the  investigation  of  all  sus- 
pected frauds  perpetrated  within  their  respective  districts. 

This  division  requires  clerks  who  are  thoroughly  familiar 
with  all  laws  which  the  Office  is  called  upon  to  execute,  as 
well  as  a  general  knowledge  of  the  criminal  laws  of  each 
State.  Its  efforts  are :  first,  to  secure  the  pensioner  in 
all  his  rights ;  second,  to  prosecute  all  persons  where  it  is 
thought  a  conviction  can  be  had ;  and  third,  to  secure  a 
return  to  the  Government  of  all  money  unlawfully  ob- 
tained. The  amount  saved  in  reducing  pensions  illegally 
rated,  in  dropping  from  the  rolls  those  found  not  to  be 
entitled,  and  in  sums  refunded,  largely  exceed  the  cost  of 
the  work,  while  the  effect  upon  the  public  is  beneficial  in 


THE   MEDICAL   DIVISION.  429 

deterring  others  from  criminal  practices.  Cases  have  been 
found  which  were  allowed  on  the  clearest  proof  of  de- 
pendence upon  the  part  of  mothers  of  soldiers,  where  an 
investigation  proved  that  that  same  dependent  mother 
owned  property  in  her  own  right  to  the  amount  of  forty 
thousand  dollars ! 

Such  cases  are  not  confined  to  the  classes  usually  en- 
gaged in  unlawful  acts.  Nothing  is  more  remarkable 
than  the  number  of  persons — in  the  average  transactions 
of  life  deemed  honest  and  honorable — who  are  ready  and 
eager,  under  one  pretext  or  another,  to  "  gouge  "  and  de- 
fraud the  revenues  of  the  Government;  and  these  per- 
sons are  by  no  means  confined  to  the  seekers  of  pensions, 
but  may  be  found  every  day  in  the  highest  class  that  can 
reach  the  hard-earned  treasure  of  the  National  Treasury. 

The  Medical  Division  of  the  Pension  Bureau  acts  con- 
jointly with  the  Invalid  Division  in  deciding  the  degree 
of  disability  of  claimants  for  original,  and  the  increase  of 
invalid  pensions.  This  division  is  supervised  by  medical 
gentlemen  thoroughly  trained  in  their  profession.  All 
invalid  claims,  after  having  been  briefed  by  the  examiner, 
and  before  passing  into  the  reviewer's  hands,  are  referred  to 
this  division.  The  Examining  Surgeon  makes  a  personal  ex- 
amination of  the  applicant,  and  from  his  medical  testimony, 
endorsed  by  the  Chief  of  the  Medical  Division,  theChief  of 
the  Invalid  Division  bases  his  final  opinion  and  action. 

The  Restoration  Desk  is  devoted  to  all  claims,  which  are 
to  be  restored  to  the  rolls,  of  parties  who  have  been 
dropped  for  cause — principally  those  who  were  residents 
of  the  States  in  rebellion  at  the  beginning  of  the  late  war. 
These  are  only  placed  upon  the  rolls  upon  incontestible 
proof  of  loyalty. 


430  TEN   TEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

The  Appeal  Desk  is  the  recipient  of  all  cases  in  prepa- 
ration for  reference  to  the  Secretary,  where  an  appeal 
from  the  action  of  the  Office  is  taken. 

The  Final  Desk  is  the  extensive  one  of  the  Commissioner 
of  Pensions. 

From  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  this  busy  Bureau, 
charged  with  the  comfort,  the  very  subsistence  of  so  many 
bereaved  and  disabled  fellow-creatures,  the  Commissioner 
must  see  all  things,  anticipate  all  wants,  supply  all  needs ; 
upon  him  rests  the  entire  administration  of  this  vast  and 
potent  Bureau.  His  position  is  not  easy  or  his  burden 
light. 

To  fill  so  important  a  trust  with  honor,  a  Commissioner 
needs  not  only  clear  judgment  and  business  training,  but 
should  also  be  a  man  of  positive  administrative  talents, 
large  information,  thorough  education,  and  broad,  com- 
prehensive mind. 

These  qualities  are  all  possessed  in  a  pre-eminent  de- 
gree by  the  present  Commissioner  of  Pensions. 

General  J.  H.  Baker  was  born  in  Lebanon,  Ohio,  1829. 
He  is  the  son  of  a  Methodist  clergyman,  and  was  gradu- 
ated from  the  Wesleyan  University,  Delaware,  Ohio,  taking 
the  Latin  honors  of  a  large  class  in  1852.  He  was  Secre- 
tary of  the  State  of  Ohio  during  Chief-Justice  Chase's 
term  as  Governor  of  that  State.  He  moved  to  Minnesota, 
and  was  Secretary  of  the  State  when  he  resigned  to  take 
command  of  the  Tenth  Minnesota  Volunteers.  He  served 
with  distinction  in  the  Indian  expedition  under  General 
Sibley,  and,  on  his  return,  was  ordered  South.  At  St. 
Louis  he  was  placed  in  command  of  the  post,  and  soon 
after  was  made  Provost-Marshal  General  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Missouri.  At  the  close  of  the  war  he  became 


THE    COMMISSIONER    OF   PATENTS.  431 

Register  of  Public  Lands  in  Missouri,  and,  resigning  this 
position,  in  1868  he  returned  to  Minnesota,  was  candidate 
for  the  United  States  Senate,  and  defeated  by  a  very  small 
majority.  In  1871,  he  was  appointed  Commissioner  of 
Pensions. 

General  Baker  is  a  tall,  commanding  looking  gentle- 
man, with  dark  hair,  complexion  and  eyes.  He  is  of 
nervo-motive  temperament,  quick,  prompt,  energetic  in 
action,  yet  courteous  and  genial  in  his  bearing  to  a  very 
marked  degree. 

Since  the  passage  of  the  Act  of  July  4,  1862,  nearly 
400,000  claims  for  pensions  have  been  filed  in  and  con- 
sidered by  the  Pension  Office.  Of  course,  in  the  exami- 
nation of  so  vast  a  number  of  cases,  errors  have  been 
committed,  matters  of  fact  misinterpreted,  and  in  many 
instances,  through  carelessness,  ignorance  and  neglect, 
injustice  has  been  done. 

The  clerks  of  this  office  have  always  compared  favor- 
ably, both  in  industry  and  capacity,  with  those  of  other 
Bureaus ;  but,  among  so  large  a  number,  worthless  and 
inefficient  ones  will  be  found,  and  the  still  greater  evil  of 
employing  men  who,  though  capable,  take  no  interest  in 
their  official  duties,  and,  through  the  want  of  that  spur  to 
well-doing,  fail  to  make  themselves  of  value  to  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  render  aid  to  those  whom  the  Office  was  or- 
ganized to  protect  and  assist.  The  percentage  of  claims 
affected  by  these  causes,  small  though  it  may  have  been, 
would  amount  to  thousands  in  the  aggregate,  and  these, 
distributed  throughout  the  country,  would  give  an  en- 
larged color  to  their  complaints,  and  lead  the  people -to 
believe  that  the  evil  was  general  and  unusual  in  its  ex- 
tent. When  we  add  to  this  class  of  complainants  the 


432  TEN   YEAES   IN   WASHINGTON. 

150,000  who,  in  some  shape,  have  had  claims  before  the 
office  for  increase,  arrears,  etc.,  and  which,  not  coming 
within  the  law  under  which  they  filed,  were  rejected,  and 
who,  not  understanding  what  the  law  did  provide,  but 
deriving  their  information  from  unscrupulous  agents  who 
would  not  or  could  not  instruct  them  in  the  matter,  they 
feel  seriously  aggrieved,  and  loudly  complain.  Two  de- 
pendent mothers,  equally  poor,  and  who  were  alike  aided 
by  their  respective  sons,  reside  in  the  same  village.  They 
apply  for  a  pension  for  the  services  and  deaths  of  their 
sons.  The  records  of  the  War  Department  show  that  one 
of  the  soldiers  died  of  a  disease  contracted  in  the  service 
and  in  the  line  of  duty,  and  that  the  other  soldier  died  of 
a  disease,  though  contracted  in  the  service,  yet  it  did  not 
originate  while  he  was  in  the  line  of  duty.  These  are 
distinctions  which  neither  this  poor  woman  nor  the  com- 
munity can  understand.  Yet  the  claim  last  described 
must  be  rejected,  as  it  is  barred  by  the  law.  The  whole 
community  cries  out  about  the  great  injustice  practiced 
by  the  Pension  Office,  while,  in  fact,  the  law  is  responsible, 
and  not  the  office. 

Again,  invalid  pensioners,  suffering  from  a  partial  or 
total  disability,  are  strongly  urged,  by  their  pecuniary  in- 
terests, to  believe  that  they  are  entitled  to  a  total  or  spe- 
cial rating.  They  apply  for  increase,  and  are  referred  to 
an  examining  surgeon  for  a  personal  examination,  and  a 
report  as  to  nature  and  degree  of  disability.  The  surgeon 
fails  to  conform  to  the  applicant's  estimate  as  to  the  ex- 
tent of  his  disability,  and  the  claim  for  increase  is  rejected, 
and  here  is  another  case  of  "  great  injustice." 

Biennial  examinations  of  all  invalid  pensioners  are  re- 
quired, except  in  cases  of  permanent  disability.  At  such 


THE    SORROWS    OF   THE    "  REJECTED."  433 

times  the  surgeon  finds  they  are  partially  or  entirely  re- 
covered from  the  disability  that  existed  at  the  date  of  last 
examination,  and  notwithstanding  the  firm  conviction  of 
the  pensioner  that  he  is  just  as  much  disabled  as  ever,  he 
is  reduced  or  dropped.  He  at  once  joins  the  army  of 
grumblers,  and  complains  of  injustice. 

The  office  acknowledges  its  imperfections,  but  respect- 
fully declines  to  admit  the  correctness  of  a  tithe  of  the 
grievances  reported.  There  is  some  show  of  injustice  in 
the  delay  frequently  experienced  in  the  settlement  of 
claims,  and  yet  the  Office  is  responsible  to  a  slight  degree 
only.  As  heretofore  intimated,  the  system  is  largely  ac- 
countable for  this.  The  suspicion,  warranted  by  expe- 
rience, attaching  to  every  piece  of  testimony  received, 
and  necessitating  a  close  scrutiny  and  reconciliation  of  the 
slightest  discrepancies  before  final  action  can  be  had. 
The  hundreds  of  points  going  to  make  up  a  case  must  be 
found  in  proofs,  and  the  affidavits  offered,  three  times  out 
of  five,  fail  to  cover  the  point. 

Here  is  another  cause  for  complaint.  "The  Pension 
Office  called  three  times  for  the  same  evidence."  It  must 
be  admitted  that,  some  years  ago,  there  was  an  entire 
neglect  of  correspondence.  "  Letters  of  inquiry,"  asking 
condition  of  claim  and  countless  questions,  arrived  by 
thousands.  Examiners  were  ambitious  to  pass  (admit  or 
reject)  a  large  number  of  claims,  during  the  month,  and 
these  letters  proved  nothing,  and  required  time  and  labor 
to  answer  them,  and  were  cast  aside.  This  has  all  been 
changed  by  the  present  Commissioner,  and  these  letters  are 
confided  to  clerks  who  engage  in  nothing  but  correspon- 
dence, and  who  are  required  to  keep  their  desks  up  to 
date ;  and  in  this  connection  it  is  proper  to  add  that  a.mag- 

28 


431  TEN   TEAES    IN   WASHINGTON. 

ical  change  has  been  made  in  the  style  ai>d  completeness 
of  the  letters.  Some  years  ago,  a  fac-simile  of  the  Commis- 
sioner's signature  was  stamped  upon  the  out-going  mail. 
Now,  each  letter  is  subjected  to  a  careful  review  by  the 
Chiefs  of  Divisions,  and  goes  thence  to  the  Commissioner's 
room  for  his  signature  and  a  frequent  review  by  him;  and 
the  occasional  return  of  a  letter,  with  a  sharp  reminder, 
suffices  to  keep  the  letter  writers  on  the  alert.  And  this 
idea  of  a  careful  surveillance  is  not  confined  to  correspond- 
ents, but  it  has  been  carefully  impressed  upon  the  whole 
force  by  frequent  illustrations.  By  judicious,  yet  not 
burdensome  reports,  and  by  frequent  reference  thereto, 
by  the  Commissioner,  which  is  forcibly  brought  to  the 
knowledge  of  a  careless  clerk,  the  employes  have  been 
taught  that  no  trifling  will  be  allowed. 

It  has  also  been  realized  by  the  employes  of  this  Bu- 
reau that  merit  is  noted,  and  demerit  will  insure  dis 
missal.  It  is  the  policy  of  General  Baker  to  hold  hib- 
subordinates  strictly  responsible  for  the  proper  perform* 
ance  of  their  individual  duties,  and  to  look  to  those  hav- 
ing charge  of  others  to  secure  the  desired  results,  or  to 
report  the  delinquent.  The  result  of  two  years'  growth 
in  this  direction  has  been  gratifying.  The  increased  in- 
dustry of  the  Office,  the  improvement  resulting  from  a 
thoughtful  and  careful  performance  of  its  duties,  and  the 
elevation  of  the  standard  which  all  seeking  appointments 
must  come  up  to,  and  a  careful  weeding-out  of  the  ineffi- 
cient ones,  are  rapidly  tending  to  secure  commendation 
from  those  having  business  with  the  Bureau,  rather  than 
censure. 

An  aged  claimant  for  a  pension,  who  served  in  the  war 
of  1812,  residing  in  Illinois  in  December,  1871,  wrote  to 


A    PUGNACIOUS    PETITIONER.  435 

the  Office  as  follows :  "  Oh !  can  it  be  true  that  I  am 
going  to  get  $100  ?  That  news  is  too  good !  I'm  so 
hungry,  and  I  love  coffee  so,  but  I  can't  get  any  !  All  I 
have  to  eat  is  corn-bread  and  sour  milk.  I  can't  believe 
that  I  am  to  get  so  much  money,  but  I  pray  God  it 
may  be  true."  It  is  needless  to  say  that  this  claim  was 
made  "  special,"  and  the  octogenarian  had  "  coffee  "  for 
his  Christmas  breakfast. 

A  Captain  B.,  of  Havre-de-Grace,  Maryland,  a  claimant 
for  pension  under  Act  of  1871,  for  services  in  the  War  of 
1812,  had  his  claim  rejected,  it  appearing  that  he  served 
less  than  sixty  days,  as  required  by  that  Act ;  whereupon 
the  Captain  grew  wrathy,  and  wrote  as  follows : 

"  N.  B. — Any  man  that  will  say  that  I  was  not  a  Private  sol- 
dier in  Capt.  Paca  Smith's  company  before  the  attack  of  the 
British  on  the  City  of  Baltimore,  and  during  the  attack  on  said 
City  in  Sept.,  1814,  and  after  the  British  dropped  down  to  Cape 
Henry,  I  say  he  is  a  dastard,  a  liar,  and  a  coward,  and  no  gen- 
tleman, or  any  man  that  will  say  that  I  got  my  Land-warrant 
from  the  Hon.  Geo.  C.  Whiting,  for  160  acres  of  Land,  for  14 
days'  services  in  Capt,  Paca  Smith's  company,  is  the  same,  as 
stated  above,  and  I  hold  myself  responsible  for  the  contents  of 
this  letter  ;  and  if  their  dignity  should  be  touched,  a  note  of 

honor  directed  to  Capt.  Wm.  B ,  Havre-de-Grace,  Harford 

Co.,  Md.,  shall  be  punctually  attended  to. 

«  WM.  B ." 


CHAPTER  XL. 

TREASUEES  AND  CURIOSITIES  OF  THE  PATENT  OFFICE 
—THE  MODEL  ROOM— ITS  RELICS  AND  INVENTIONS. 

The  Patent  Office  Building — Grace  and  Beauty  of  its  Architecture — Four 
"Sublime"  Porticoes — A  Pretty  Large  Passage — The  Model  Room — 
"  The  Exhibition  of  the  Nation  " — A  Room  two  hundred  and  seventy  Feet 
in  Length — The  Models — Recording  our  Name — Wonders  and  Treasures 
of  the  Room — Benjamin  Franklin's  Press — Model  Fire-Escapes — Wonder- 
ful Fire-Extinguishers — The  Efforts  of  Genius — Sheep-Stalls,  Rat-Traps, 
and  Gutta  Percha — An  Ancient  Mariner's  Compass — Captain  Cook's 
Razor — The  Atlantic  Cable — Original  Treaties — The  Signatures  of  Em- 
.  perors — An  Extraordinary  Turkish  Treaty — Treasures  of  the  Orient — 
Rare  Medals— The  Reward  of  Major  Andre's  Captors— The  Washington 
Relics— His  Old  Tent— His  Blankets  and  Bed- Curtain— His  Chairs  and 
Looking-Glass— His  Primitive  Mess- Chess  and  old  Tin  Plates— The  Old 
Clothes  of  the  "  Father  of  His  Country  "—Military  Relics  of  Well-known 
Men — Original  Draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence — Washington's 
Commission— Model  of  an  Extraordinary  Boat — Abraham  Lincoln  as  an 
Inventor— The  Hat  Worn  on  the  Fatal  Night— The  Gift  of  the  Tycoon— 
The  Efforts  of  Genius — A  Machine  to  Force  Hens  to  Lay  Eggs — A  Hook 
for  Fishing  Worms  out  of  the  Human  Stomach — The  Library  of  the 
Patent  Office. 

THE  lawful  fees  for  issuing  patents  having  accumu- 
lated into  a  considerable  fund,  Congress  added  an 
appropriation,  and  directed  that  the  whole  amount  should 
be  invested  in  a  new  building  to  be  called  the  Patent 
Office. 

From  that  double  fund  has  arisen  the  majestic  struc- 
ture which,  next  to  the  Capitol,  is  the  most  august  building 
in  Washington.  The  southern  front  of  the  Treasury  is 
of  superlative  beauty,  and  from  several  other  points  its 


•THE   PATENT-OFFICE    BUILDING.  437 

architectural  grace  cannot  be  surpassed ;  but  its  whole 
effect  is  marred  by  the  dingy,  unbroken  outline  of  its 
Fifteenth-street  side.  The  advantage  of  the  Patent- 
Office  is,  that  from  any  point  which  you  choose  to  survey 
it,  it  impresses  you  as  supremely  grand.  Occupying  two 
blocks,  or  an  entire  public  square,  standing  upon  a  promi- 
nence, it  spreads  and  towers  into  space  incomparable  in 
mass  and  majesty.  You  may  approach  it  from  four  oppo- 
site directions,  and  on  each  side  you  lift  your  eyes  to  four 
sublime  porticoes  towering  before  you.  They  are  sup- 
ported by  double  rows  of  Doric  columns,  eighteen  feet  in 
circumference,  made  of  gleaming  crystallized  marble.  The 
entire  building  is  of  pure  Doric  architecture,  strong,  simple 
and  majestic.  Its  southern  front  is  an  exact  copy  of  the 
Pantheon  at  Rome,  and  the  eastern  portico  is  modelled 
after  that  of  the  Parthenon  at  Athens. 

The  length  of  the  building,  from  Seventh  to  Ninth 
streets,  is  410  feet,  and  its  width,  from  F  to  G  streets,  275 
feet.  Its  original  design  was  made  by  Mr.  William  P. 
Elliot,  at  that  time  surveyor  of  the  City  of  Washington. 
The  plan  was  largely  executed  by  Mr.  Mills,  architect  of 
Public  Buildings;  while  the  grand  northern  portico  has 
been  consummated  under  the  superintendence  of  Mr.  Ed- 
ward Clark,  the  present  architect  of  the  Capitol. 

We  enter  the  eastern  door  of  the  basement-story,  into 
a  spacious  passage  running  from  east  to  west,  the  whole 
length  of  the  building.  Through  it,  large-wheeled  ma- 
chines can  be  drawn.  On  each  side  of  this  hall  are  rooms 
for  the  deposit  of  fuel,  large  and  heavy  models  and  de- 
partment offices.  In  the  centre  springs  a  semi-circular 
stone  staircase,  with  three  flights  of  steps,  which  ascend  to 
the  second,  third  and  last  story.  The  corridor  in  the  first 


438  TEN   TEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON.   ' 

story  is  like  the  one  that  we  entered  below,  and  on  each 
side  of  the  hall,  doors  open  into  commodious  apartments 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  commissioners,  examiners, 
clerks,  etc. 

Ascending  the  stone  staircase,  we  come  to  the  Model 
Room — par  excellence,  the  Exhibition  Room  of  the  nation. 
For  architectural  simplicity  and  space,  and  the  purpose 
for  which  it  was  designed,  it  is  unsurpassed  in  the  whole 
world.  Standing  here,  we  look  down  a  vista  two  hundred 
and  seventy-four  feet  in  length,  and  its  perspective  is 
enchanting  to  the  sight.  A  double  row  of  stone  columns 
supports  a  succession  of  brick  arches,  finely  proportioned, 
and  corresponding  in  depth  with  the  rooms  below.  The 
floor  is  paved  with  tessellated  stone,  and  the  light  streams 
in  from  numerous  windows  on  each  side. 

The  models  and  other  articles  are  arranged  in  glass 
cases  on  each  side  of  the  room,  leaving  ample  space  in 
the  centre  for  promenading.  There  are  two  rows  of 
cases,  one  above  the  other — the  upper  row  being  placed 
within  a  light  gallery  of  iron,  reached  by  iron  stairways, 
and  extending  entirely  round  the  east,  north  and  west 
halls.  The  ceiling  is  supported  by  a  double  row  of  pil- 
lars, which  also  act  as  supports  to  the  galleries,  and  both 
the  walls  and  ceiling  are  finished  in  marble  and  frescoes^ 

Entering,  we  find  a  large  register,  with  pens  and  ink, 
at  the  right  of  the  door,  in  which  we  may  record  our 
name  and  the  date  of  our  visit,  if  we  please. 

The  first  case  on  the  right  of  the  entrance  contains 
Benjamin  Franklin's  press,  at  which  he  worked  when  a 
journeyman-printer  in  London.  It  is  old  and  worm- 
eaten,  and  is  only  held  together  by  means  of  bolts  and 
iron  plates,  and  bears  but  little  resemblance  to  the  mighty 


CURIOSITIES    AND    INVENTIONS.  439 

machines  by  which  the  printing  of  to-day  is  done.  Then 
come  models  of  "fire-escapes/'  some  of  which  are  curiosi- 
ties and  well  worth  studying.  The  impression  left  by 
the  majority,  however,  is  that  if  they  constitute  one's  only 
hope  of  escape,  in  case  of  fire,  an  old-fashioned  headlong 
leap  from  a  window  may  just  as  well  be  attempted  at  once. 

Near  by  are  the  models  of  those  inventive  geniuses 
who  have  attempted  to  extinguish  conflagrations  by  dis- 
charging a  patent  cartridge  into  the  burning  mass.  The 
guns,  from  which  the  cartridges  are  thrown,  are  most 
remarkable  in  design. 

Then  follow  tobacco-cutting  machines,  of  various  kinds, 
all  sorts  of  skates,  billiard-table  models,  ice-cutters,  bil- 
liard-registers, improved  fire-arms,  and  toys,  of  different 
designs,  among  which  is  a  most  ingenious  model  of  a 
\valking-horse.  Having  reached  the  end  of  this  row  of 
cases,  we  cross  over  to  the  south  side  of  the  hall.  The  first 
cases  contain  models  of  cattle  and  sheep-stalls,  vermin 
;,ml  rat-traps,  and  are  followed  by  a  handsome  display  of 
-articles  in  gutta  percha,  manufactured  by  the  Goodyear 
Company. 

In  the  bottom  of  one  of  the  cases  is  an  old  mariner's 
compass  of  the  year  1604,  presented  by  Ex-Governor 
Wise,  of  Virginia,  then  United  States  Minister  to  Brazil,  in 
the  name  of  Lieutenant  Sheppard,  U.  S.  N.  The  ticket 
attached  to  the  compass  is  written  in  the  bold,  running 
hand  of  the  ex-rebel  statesman.  Near  by  is  a  razor 
which  belonged  to  the  celebrated  navigator,  Captain  Cook. 
It  was  recovered  from  the  natives  of  the  island  upon 
which  he  was  murdered,  and  is  hardly  such  an  instrument 
any  of  those  who  behold  it  would  care  to  use.  A  piece 
of  the  Atlantic  cable  is  just  below  it 


440  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Several  of  the  cases  following  contain  the  original 
treaties  of  the  United  States  with  foreign  powers.  They 
are  written  upon  heavy  sheets  of  vellum,  in  wretchedly 
bad  hands,  and  are  worn  and  faded.  All,  save  the  treaties 
with  England  and  the  Eastern  nations,  are  written  in 
French,  and  are  all  furnished  with  a  multiplicity  of  red 
and  green  seals ;  the  first  is  the  treaty  with  Austria,  and 
bears  the  weak,  hesitating  signature  of  Francis  I.  The 
signature  of  Alexander  I.,  attached  to  the  first  Russian 
treaty,  has  more  character  in  it.  The  treaty  of  peace  with 
England,  in  1814,  which  ended  our  second  war  with  that 
power,  bears  the  signature  of  the  Regent,  afterwards 
George  IV.  The  treaty  of  1803,  with  the  Republic  of 
France,  is  signed  "  Bonaparte,"  in  a  nervous,  sprawling 
hand.  Bernadotte's  smooth  and  flowing  hand  adorns 
the  first  treaty  with  Sweden. 

The  original  treaty  with  Turkey  is  a  curious  document. 
It  consists  of  a  number  of  long  slips  of  parchment,  covered 
with  columns  of  Turkish  characters.  Near  by  it  hangs  a 
bag,  in  which  it  was  conveyed  to  this  country.  The  bag 
is  its  legal  covering,  or  case,  and  is  provided  with  a  huge 
ball  of  red  wax,  by  way  of  a  seal.  Next  to  it  is  the  first 
treaty  of  alliance  with  France — the  famous  one  of  1778 — 
which  gave  the  aid  of  the  French  king  to  the  cause  of 
the  suffering  and  struggling  States  of  the  new  republic. 
It  is  signed  by  the  unfortunate  Louis  XVI.  The  "  Louis  " 
is  written  in  a  round,  phlegmatic  hand  ;  but  the  lines  are 
delicate,  as  if  the  pen  did  not  press  the  paper  with  the 
firmness  of  a  strong  will.  The  French  treaty,  of  1822, 
bears  the  autograph  of  Louis  XVIII. ;  and  that  of  1831, 
the  signature  of  Louis  Phillippe.  Don  Pedro  L,  Emperor 
of  Brazil,  has  affixed  his  hand  to  the  Brazilian  treaty, 


RELICS    OF    GEORGE   WASHINGTON.  441 

and  the  name  of  Ferdinand  (the  last,  and  least)  is  affixed 
to  that  of  Spain. 

In  the  glass  cases  with  the  treaties  are  several  Oriental 
articles, — a  Persian  carpet  and  horse-cover,  presented  to 
President  Yan  Buren,  by  the  Iman  of  Muscat ;  and  two 
magnificent  rifles,  presented  to  President  Jefferson,  by 
the  Emperor  of  Morocco.  These  rifles  are  finished  in  the 
highest  style  of  Eastern  art,  and  are  really  beautiful.  In 
the  same  cases  are  collections  of  medals,  some  of  European 
sovereigns,  and  others  of  American  celebrities.  Among 
them  is  a  copy  of  the  medal,  awarded  by  Congress,  to  the 
captors  of  Major  Andre.  Near  these  are  several  splendid 
Eastern  sabres,  presented  by  the  great  Ali  Pacha,  the 
Bey  of  Egypt,  to  Captain  Perry  and  the  officers  of  the 
U.  S.  ship-of-war,  Concord,  at  Alexandria,  (Egypt,)  in 
1832. 

The  next  cases  contain  the  Washington  relics,  which 
are  amongst  the  greatest  treasures  of  the  nation.  They 
consist  of  the  camp-equipage,  and  other  articles  used  by 
General  Washington,  during  the  Revolution.  They  are 
just  as  he  left  them  at  the  close  of  the  war,  and  were 
given  to  the  Government,  for  safe  keeping,  after  his  death. 
Here  are  the  tents  which  constituted  the  head-quarters,  in 
the  field,  of  the  great  soldier.  They  are  wrapped  tightly 
round  the  poles,  just  as  they  were  tied  when  they  were 
struck  for  the  last  time,  when  victory  had  crowned  his 
country's  arms,  and  the  long  war  was  over.  Every  cord, 
every  button  and  tent-pin  is  in  its  place,  for  he  was  care- 
ful of  little  things.  His  blankets  and  the  bed-curtain, 
worked  for  him  by  his  wife,  and  his  window-curtains,  are 
all  well  preserved.  His  chairs  are  perfect,  not  a  round 
being  broken  j  and  the  little  square  mirror  in  his  dressing- 


442  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

case  is  not  even  cracked.  The  wash-stand  and  table  are 
also  well  kept.  His  knife-case  is  filled  with  plain  horn- 
handle  knives  and  forks,  which  were  deemed  "good 
enough  for  him,"  and  his  mess-chest  is  a  curiosity.  It  is 
a  plain  wooden  trunk,  covered  with  leather,  with  a  com- 
mon lock,  the  hasp  of  which  is  broken.  It  is  divided  by 
small  partitions  of  thin  wood,  and  the  compartments  are 
provided  with  bottles,  still  stained  with  the  liquids,  tin 
plates,  common  knives  and  forks,  and  other  articles  per- 
taining to  such  an  establishment. 

In  these  days  of  luxury,  an  ordinary  sergeant  would  not 
be  satisfied  with  so  simple  and  plain  an  establishment. 
His  cooking  utensils,  bellows,  andirons,  and  iron  money- 
chest,  all  of  which  went  with  him  from  Boston  to  York- 
town,  are  in  the  same  case,  from  the  side  of  which 
hangs  the  suit  of  clothes  worn  by  him  upon  the  occasion 
of  his  resignation  of  his  commission  as  Commander-in- 
Chief,  at  Annapolis,  in  1783.  A  hall  lantern,  and  several 
articles  from  Mount  Vernon,  a  "travelling  secretary/* 
Washington's  sword  and  cane,  and  a  surveyor's  compass, 
presented  by  him  to  Captain  Samuel  Duvall,  the  surveyor 
of  Frederick  county,  Maryland,  are  in  the  same  case,  as 
are  also  a  number  of  articles  taken  from  Arlington  House, 
and  belonging  formerly  to  the  Washington  family. 

A  coat  worn  by  Andrew  Jackson,  at  the  battle  of  New 
Orleans,  and  the  war-saddle  of  the  Baron  De  Kalb,  a 
bayonet  used  by  one  of  Braddock's  soldiers,  and  found  on 
the  fatal  field  upon  which  that  commander  met  his  death- 
wound,  together  with  the  panels  from  the  state-coach  of 
President  Washington,  make  up  the  collection.  The 
original  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  with 
the  signatures  of  the  Continental  Congress  attached,  is 


CUKIOUS   INVENTION   OF   ABKAHAM  LINCOLN.         443 

framed  and  placed  near  the  Washington  case.  It  is  old 
and  yellow,  and  the  ink  is  fading  from  the  paper.  Near 
it  hangs  Washington's  Commission  as  Coinmander-in- 
Chief  of  the  American  army,  bearing  the  characteristic 
signature  of  John  Hancock,  President  of  the  Continental 
Congress. 

In  the  same  case  is  a  plain  model,  roughly  executed, 
representing  the  frame-work  of  the  hull  of  a  Western 
steamboat.  Beneath  the  keel  is  a  false  bottom,  provided 
with  bellows  and  air-bags.  The  ticket  upon  it  bears  the 
memorandum,  "Model  of  sinking  and  raising  boats  by 
bellows  below.  A.  Lincoln,  May  30,  1849." 

By  means  of  this  arrangement,  Mr.  Lincoln  hoped  to 
solve  the  difficulty  of  passing  boats  over  sand-bars  in  the 
Western  rivers.  The  success  of  his  scheme  would  have 
made  him  independently  wealthy,  but  it  failed,  and, 
twelve  years  later,  he  became  President  of  the  United 
States.  During  the  interval,  the  model  lay  forgotten  in 
the  Patent  Office,  but,  after  his  inauguration,  Mr.  Lin- 
coln got  one  of  the  employes  to  find  it  for  him.  After 
his  death,  it  was  placed  in  the  Washington  case. 

The  opposite  case  contains  another  memento  of  him — 
the  hat  worn  by  him  on  the  night  of  his  assassination. 

In  a  couple  of  cases,  filled  with  machinery  for  making 
shoes,  we  see  a  number  of  handsome  silk  robes  and  Jap- 
anese articles,  of  various  kinds,  presented  to  Presidents 
Buchanan  and  Lincoln,  by  the  Tycoon  of  Japan.  The 
remainder  of  the  hall  is  filled  with  models  of  machines 
for  making  leather  harness  and  trunks,  models  of  gas  and 
kerosene  oil  apparatuses,  liquor  distilleries,  machines  for 
making  confectionery,  and  for  trying  out  lard  and  fat. 
Also,  methods  of  curing  fish  and  meat,  and  embalming 


444  TEN  YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

the  dead.  A  splendid  model  of  a  steel  revolving  tower, 
for  harbor  defence,  stands  near  the  door,  and  is  one  of  the 
most  conspicuous  ornaments  of  the  room.  The  other 
halls  are  devoted  exclusively  to  models  of  patented  ma- 
chinery, and  other  inventions.  The  cases  above  and  be- 
low are  well  filled ;  models  of  bridges  span  the  spaces 
between  the  other  cases,  and  those  of  the  larger  machines 
are  laid  on  the  floor  of  the  hall. 

Models  of  improved  arms,  clocks,  telegraphs,  burglar 
and  fire  alarms,  musical  instruments,  light-houses,  street 
cars,  lamps,  stoves,  ranges,  furnaces,  peat  and  fuel-ma- 
chines, brick  and  tile-machines,  sewing-machines,  power* 
looms,  paper-making  machinery,  knitting-machines,  ma^ 
chines  for  making  cloth,  hats,  spool  cotton,  for  working 
up  hemp,  harbor  cleaners,  patent  hooks-and-eyes,  buttons, 
umbrella  and  cane-handles,  fluting-machines,  trusses,  medi- 
cal instruments  of  gutta  percha,  corsets,  ambulances  and 
other  military  establishments,  arrangements  for  exclud- 
ing the  dust  and  smoke  from  railroad  cars,  railroad  and 
steamboat  machinery,  agricultural  and  domestic  machin- 
ery of  all  kinds,  and  hundreds  of  other  inventions,  line 
these  three  immense  halls.  Among  the  most  remarka- 
ble is  a  machine  to  force  a  hen  to  lay  eggs,  and  a  silver 
worm  hook,  invented  to  fish  worms  out  of  the  human 
stomach. 

A  large  library,  of  great  value,  is  attached  to  the  Patent 
Office,  containing  many  volumes  of  the  highest  scientific 
value.  Under  judicious  arrangement,  a  collection  already 
rich  and  ample  is  forming,  of  every  work  of  interest  to 
the  inventors,  and  that  new,  increasing,  important  class 
of  professional  men — the  attorneys  in  patent  cases.  Upon 
its  shelves  may  be  found  a  complete  set  of  the  reports  of 


A    SYSTEM    OF    EXCHANGE.  445 

the  British  Patent  Commissioners,  of  which  there  are  only 
six  copies  in  the  United  States.  The  reports  of  French 
patents  are  also  complete,  and  those  of  various  other  coun- 
tries are  being  obtained  as  rapidly  as  possible.  A  system 
of  exchanges  has  been  established,  which  employs  three 
agents  abroad ;  and,  in  addition  to  various  and  arduous 
duties,  the  librarian  annually  dispatches  several  hundred 
copies  of  the  reports. 


CHAPTER    XLI. 

THE  BUREAU  OF    PATENTS— CRAZY  INVENTORS  AND 
WONDERFUL  INVENTIONS. 

Patent-Rights  in  Steamboats — Origin  of  Copyright  and  Patent-Laws — Con- 
gress Settles  the  Matter — A  Board  of  "Disinterested,  Competent  "  Per- 
sons— Destruction  of  the  Patent-Office  by  Fire — The  New  Building— 
The  Corps  of  Examiners — The  Commissioner's  Speech — Twenty  Thou 
sand  Applications  per  annum — Fourteen  Thousand  Patents  Granted  is 
One  Year — Wonderful  Expansion  of  Inventive  Genius — "  The  Universa1 
Yankee  " — Second-hand  Inventions — Where  the  Inventions  Come  from — 
Taking  Out  a  Patent  for  the  Lord's  Prayer— A  Patent  for  a  Cow's  Tail 
— A  Lady's  Patent — Hesitating  to  Accept  a  Million  Dollars — How  Pa- 
tentees are  Protected— The  American  System — What  American  Inventors 
Have  Done,  and  What  They  Have  n't — The  First  Superintendent — The 
Present  Commissioner — Exploits  of  General  Legett — His  Efficiency  in 
Office — The  Inventor  Always  a  Dreamer — Perpetual  Motion — The  Inven- 
tion of  a  D.  D.— His  Little  Machine—"  Original  with  Me  "—Silencing 
the  Doctor — A  New  Process  of  Embalming — A  Dead  Body  Sent  to  the 
Office — Utilizing  Niagara — A  Generous  Offer — An  Englishman's  Inven- 
tion— Inventors  in  Paris— How  to  Kill  Lions  and  Tigers  in  the  United 
States  with  Catmint— A  Fearful  Bomb-shell— Eccentric  Letters— Amus- 
ing Specimens  of  Correspondence. 

WITH  the   settlement  of  the   English   colonies  in 
America  came  a  great  many  English  customs  and 
laws,  and  among  those  adhered  to  was  that  of  granting 
patents  or  passing  special  Acts  for  the  protection  of  in- 
ventors. 

In  1728,  the  Legislature  of  Connecticut  granted  the 
exclusive  right  of  practicing  the  business  or  trade  of 
steel-making,  provided  the  petitioners  improved  the  art 


ALL   ABOUT   PATENTS.  447 

to  any  good  and  reasonable  perfection  within  two  years. 
In  1785,  the  State  of  Maryland  passed  an  act  giving  to 
one  James  Rumsey  the  exclusive  right  to  construct,  em- 
ploy and  navigate  boats  of  an  improved  construction,  to 
run  against  the  current  of  rapid  rivers.  In  1787,  an  act 
was  passed  vesting  the  exclusive  right  of  propelling  boats 
by  steam  and  water  for  a  limited  time.  In  this  year  a 
number  of  acts  were  passed  to  protect  inventions  of  ma- 
chines for  ruff-carding-belts,  grinding  flour,  &c.,  and  in 
1789,  one  for  the  protection  of  a  hand  fire-engine  in  New 
Hampshire  was  enacted. 

The  founders  of  the  Constitution  saw  the  advantages 
to  be  derived  from  protecting  the  useful  arts  and  sciences, 
and  we  find  in  Article  1,  Section  8,  the  authority  and 
power  given  Congress  "  to  promote  the  progress  of  science 
and  the  useful  arts  by  securing,  for  a  limited  time,  to 
authors  and  inventors,  the  exclusive  right  to  their  respec- 
tive writings  and  discoveries,"  etc. ;  "  to  make  all  laws 
which  shall  be  necessary  and  proper  for  carrying  into 
execution  the  foregoing  powers."  Accordingly,  Con- 
gress, in  1790,  immediately  after  the  ratification  of  the 
Constitution,  found  it  necessary  and  thought  it  beneficial 
to  enact  a  statute  which  authorized  the  issue  of  a  patent 
to  inventors  and  discoverers  of  any  useful  manufacture, 
engine,  machine,  and  those  who  should  devise  any  im- 
provement thereon  not  before  known  or  used. 

The  application,  consisting  of  a  clear  description  of  the 
invention,  was  at  that  time  made  to  the  Secretary-of-State, 
and  the  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States.  If 
such  application  was  found  to  be  new,  a  patent  was 
issued  by  authority  of  any  two  persons  enumerated,  at- 
tested by  the  signature  of  the  President  of  the  United 


448  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

States,  who  granted  to  the  inventor  the  exclusive  right 
of  making,  constructing,  using,  or  vending  to  others  to 
be  used,  the  invention  or  discovery,  for  the  term  of  four- 
teen years. 

As  the  nation  increased  in  power  and  talent,  this  Act 
was  modified  as  the  necessities  of  the  time  required. 
Abuses  crept  in,  the  most  noted  of  which  was  the  grant- 
ing and  issuing  of  a  great  many  patents  without  any 
record  being  kept  to  indicate  that  such  patents  were  ever 
granted.  This  was  caused  by  lack  of  organization  and 
want  of  proper  assistance.  The  Executive  and  Members 
of  the  Cabinet,  having  other  duties  to  perform,  neglected 
the  proper  examination  of  applications,  and  the  system 
degenerated  into  as  bad  a  one  as  the  English. 

This  Act,  with  the  amendment,  was,  in  1836,  swept 
from  the  statute  books,  and  the  Patent-Office  was  estab- 
lished on  a  surer  basis,  with  an  organization  of  a  Com- 
missioner, Chief  Clerk,  an  Examiner,  a  Draughtsman,  and 
some  five  clerks  to  conduct  the  examination  and  issues 
of  applications.  As  the  decisions  of  the  Commissioner, 
who  was  then  presumed  to  examine  all  applications,  was 
not  always  impartial  and  right,  an  appeal  was  allowed 
to  a  Board  composed  of  three  disinterested  and  compe- 
tent persons,  who  were  appointed  by  the  Secretary  of 
State,  as  occasion  required. 

The  Patent-Office  Building,  which  was  at  that  time 
situated  on  the  present  site  of  the  General  Post-Office, 
was  completely  destroyed  by  fire  in  December,  1836, 
and  all  models,  drawings  and  records  were  consumed. 
Congress  appropriated  money,  and  issued  circulars  di- 
rected to  all  who  were  thought  to  be  interested  in  the 
restoration. 


INGENUITY     TRIUMPHANT.  449 

The  majority  of  the  patentees  sent  in  duplicates  of 
their  papers  and  models,  but  many  were  never  heard 
from,  and  for  this  reason  the  office  is  unable  to  present  a 
complete  record  of  the  grants.  After  the  fire,  the  busi- 
ness of  the  Office  was  conducted  in  the  City  Hall  build- 
ing until  the  present  building  was  erected  for  the  Patent- 
Office,  a  few  years  later.  In  1849,  the  Office  was  placed 
under  the  supervision  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  or 
Home  Department,  where  it  now  remains. 

The  fostering  of  invention  encouraged  home  manufac- 
tures, one  of  the  results  most  eagerly  sought,  after  the 
war  with  Great  Britain.  So  active  became  the  inventive 
genius  and  so  prolific  of  results,  that  Congress  was  com^ 
pelled,  from  time  to  time,  to  increase  the  examining 
corps,  and  the  little  band  of  seven  persons,  who  occu- 
pied the  contracted  rooms  in  the  City  Hall,  has  expanded 
into  a  corps  of  eighty  examiners  and  assistants,  more 
than  two  hundred  clerks  and  other  officials,  all  under 
the  control  of  a  Commissioner  and  an  Assistant-Com- 
missioner. 

The  grant  of  one  thousand  patents  in  1836,  when  the 
office  was  first  regularly  organized,  has  enlarged  into  one 
hundred  and  sixty  thousand  at  the  present  time.  And 
the  latter  number  is  scarcely  two-thirds  of  the  number 
of  applications.  With  this  enormous  increase  followed 
a  corresponding  labor  and  intricacy  in  examining  so  large 
a  number  of  applications,  but  so  perfectly  has  the  system 
been  developed,  that  very  few  mistakes  are  made  in  the 
way  of  wrongfully  granting  patents. 

Hon.  S.  S.  Fisher,  United  States  Commissioner  of  Pa- 
tents, before  the  American  Institute,  New  York  City, 
September  28,  1869,  made  an  eloquent  address  concern- 

29 


450  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

ing  the  American  system  of  granting  patents,  from  which 
I  make  the  following  extracts : 

"  The  great  Patent  Act  of  1836  established  what  is  now  dis- 
tinctively the  American  system  in  regard  to  the  grant  of  letters- 
patent. 

"In  the  Patent-office,  under  the  act  of  1836,  the  Commis- 
sioner and  one  examining-clerk  were  thought  to  be  sufficient 
to  do  the  work  of  examining  into  the  patentability  of  the  two 
or  three  hundred  that  were  offered ;  now  sixty-two  examiners 
are  over-crowded  with  work,  a  force  of  over  three  hundred  em- 
ployes is  maintained,  and  the  applications  have  swelled  to  over 
twenty  thousand  per  annum.  This  year  the  number  of  patents 
granted  will  average  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  per  week,  or 
fourteen  thousand  a  year. 

"  In  England  and  on  the  Continent  all  applications  are  pa- 
tented without  examination  into  the  novelty  of  the  inventions 
claimed.  In  some  instances  the  instrument  is  scanned  to  see  if 
it  cover  a  patentable  subject  matter,  and  in  Prussia  some  exam- 
ination is  made  into  the  character  of  the  new  idea ;  but  in  no 
case  are  such  appliances  provided,  such  a  corps  of  skilled  exam- 
iners, such  a  provision'  of  drawings,  models,  and  books,  such  a 
collection  of  foreign  patents,  and  such  checks  to  prevent  and 
review  error,  as  with  us.  As  a  result,  an  American  patent  has 
in  our  courts  a  value  that  no  foreign  patent  can  acquire  in  the 
courts  of  its  own  country. 

"  The  foreign  patents  of  American  inventors,  that  have  been 
copies  of  patents  previously  granted  in  this  country,  are  the  best 
that  are  granted  abroad.  Many  an  English  or  French  invention, 
that  has  been  patented  without  difficulty  there,  has  been  stopped 
in  its  passage  through  our  office  by  a  reference  to  some  patent 
previously  granted  in  this  country.  In  spite  of  our  examination, 
which  rejects  over  one-third  of  all  the  applications  that  are  made, 
invention  has  been  stimulated  by  the  hope  of  protection  ;  and 
nearly  as  many  patents  will  issue  in  the  United  States  this 


LADY   INVENTORS.  451 

year  as  in  the  whole  of  Europe  put  together,  including  the  Brit- 
ish Isles.  But  a  few  days  ago  I  took  up  a  volume  of  Italian 
patents,  when  I  was  amused  and  gratified  to  find  on  every  page 
the  name  of  the  universal  Yankee,  re-patenting  there  his  Ameri- 
can invention.  He  is,  I  suspect,  much  the  best  customer  in  the 
Patent  Office  of  United  Italy. 

"  We  are  an  inventive  people.  Invention  is  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  our  mechanics.  Our  merchants  invent,  our  soldiers 
and  our  sailors  invent,  our  school-masters  invent,  our  profes- 
sional men  invent,  aye,  our  women  and  children  invent.  One 
man,  lately,  wished  to  patent  the  application  of  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  repeated  in  a  loud  tone  of  voice,  to  prevent  stammering ; 
another  claimed  the  new  and  useful  attachment  of  a  weight  to  a 
cow's  tail,  to  prevent  her  from  switching  it  while  milking ;  an- 
other proposed  to  cure  worms  by  extracting  by  a  delicate  line 
and  tiny  hook,  baited  with  a  seductive  «pill ;  while  a  lady  pa- 
tented a  crimping-pin,  which  she  declared  might  also  be  used  as 
a  paper-cutter,  as  a  skirt-supporter,  as  a  paper-file,  as  a  child's 
pin,  as  a  bouquet-holder,  as  a  shawl-fastener,  or  as  a  book-mark. 
Do  not  suppose  that  this  is  the  highest  flight  that  the  gentle  sex 
has  achieved.  It  has  obtained  many  other  patents,  some  of  which 
have  no  relation  to  wearing  apparel,  and  are  of  considerable 
value. 

"  Every  inventor  supposes  that  he  has  a  fortune  in  every  con- 
ception that  he  puts  into  wood  and  iron.  Stealing  tremblingly 
and  furtively  up  the  steps  of  the  Patent  Office,  with  his  model 
concealed  under  his  coat,  lest  some  sharper  shall  see  it  and  rob 
him  of  his  darling  thought,  he  hopes  to  come  down  those  steps 
with  the  precious  parchment  that  shall  insure  him  a  present 
competency  and  enrich  his  children.  If  he  were  offered  a  mil- 
lion in  the  first  flush  of  his  triumph,  he  would  hesitate  about 
touching  it  without  sleeping  over  it  for  a  night.  Yet  fourteen 
thousand  millions  would  be  a  pretty  heavy  bill  to  pay  from  a 
treasury  not  over  full.  No  commission  could  satisfy  the  in- 
ventor, and  no  price  that  we  could  afford  to  pay  would  take  the 
place  of  the  hope  of  unlimited  wealth,  which  now  lightens  his 


452  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

toil We  say,  we  cannot  pay  you  in  money,  we  will  pay 

you  in  time.  A  new  thought  developed,  explained,  described, 
put  on  record  for  the  use  of  the  nation — this  is  the  one  side. 
The  right  to  the  exclusive  benefit  of  this  new  thought,  for  a  lim- 
ited time,  and  protection  in  that  right,  this  on  the  other.  This 
is  the  patent  system.  A  fair  contract  between  the  inventor 
and  the  public. 

"  The  inventor's  best  security  is  to  take  out  a  patent. 

"  To  secure  this  fair  dealing,  we  have  on  the  one  side  the 
Patent  Office,  with  its  examiners,  its  drawings,  its  models,  its 
books  and  its  foreign  patents,  to  scan  and  test  the  invention. 

On  the  other  side  we  have  the  courts  of  law  to  protect  the 
inventor  and  punish  the  thief.  It  is  impossible  that  these  in- 
strumentalities should  do  their  work  imperfectly.  This  is  the 
American  system.  Under  its  protection  great  inventions  have 
been  born,  and  have  thriven.  It  has  given  to  the  world  the 
steamboat,  the  telegraph,  the  sewing-machine,  the  hard  and  soft 
rubber.  It  has  reconstructed  the  loom,  the  reaping-machine, 
and  the  locomotive.  It  has  won  from  the  older  homes  of  the 
mechanic  arts  their  richest  trophies,  and  like  Columbus,  who 
found  a  new  world  for  Castile  and  Leon,  it  has  created  new  arts 
in  which  our  nation  has  neither  competitive  or  peer." 

The  first  Superintendent  of  the  Patent  Office  was  Doc- 
tor W.  Thornton,  a  gentleman  of  great  attainments,  who 
held  his  position  for  many  years.  The  present  Commis- 
sioner of  Patents  is  General  Mortimer  D.  Leggett,  born 
of  Quaker  parents,  in  the  State  of  New  York,  fifty  years 
ago.  At  an  early  age,  he  went  with  his  parents  to  the 
Western  Reserve,  Ohio.  He  received  an  academical  ed- 
ucation, studied  law,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  at 
twenty-eight,  was  established  in  a  flourishing  business  in 
Warren,  Ohio.  Jacob  D.  Cox,  late  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior, studied  law  with  General  Leggett,  and  ultimately 
became  his  partner  under  the  firm  name  of  Leggett  & 


THE    COMMISSIONER    OF    PATENTS.  453 

Cox.  General  Leggett  afterwards  filled  the  position  of 
Professor  of  Pleadings  and  Equity  Jurisprudence,  in  the 
Ohio  Law  College,  which  he  occupied  till  1857,  and 
later  was  called  to  become  the  Superintendent  of  Public 
Schools  in  the  city  of  Zanesville,  which  his  manage- 
ment made  pre-eminent  among  the  schools  of  the  West. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  war,  he  entered  the  field  at  the 
head  of  the  Seventy-eighth  Ohio.  This  regiment  re- 
ceived its  first  baptism  in  the  snow  and  sleet  of  Fort 
Donelson,  and  was  under  fire  there. 

The  executive  and  administrative  ability  of  Colonel 
Leggett,  as  shown  in  the  discipline  and  condition  of  his 
regiment,  attracted  the  attention  of  General  Grant,  who 
made  him  Provost-Marshal  of  the  post.  He  did  his  work 
so  well,  that  he  was  repeatedly  chosen  again,  and  by  the 
warm  commendation  of  his  chief,  was  made  Brigadier- 
General.  At  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  and  the  siege  of  Cor- 
inth, General  Leggett  held  advanced  posts.  In  the 
siege  of  Vicksburg,  General  Leggett  commanded  the  first 
brigade  of  Logan's  Division — the  brigade  which,  for  its 
gallant  service,  was  honored  by  being  designated  for  the 
coveted  distinction  of  marching  first  into  the  captured 
works.  Soon  after,  he  received  command  of  this  division, 
and  was  made  Major-General,  and  with  it,  made  with 
Sherman,  the  famous  "march. to  the  sea." 

There  are  many  young  men  who  live  to  say — that  the 
most  genial,  beneficent,  and  valuable  influence,  exerted 
upon  them  during  the  toilsome  campaign,  and  the  dan- 
gerous periods  of  idleness  in  camp-life,  was  that  of  Gen- 
eral Leggett,  who  ever  inspired  patience  by  his  unfailing 
good  humor,  persistent  fidelity  to  temperance,  both  by 
precept  and  lofty  example.  He  made  many  a  dreary 


454  TEN"   YEARS   IN    WASHINGTON. 

march  seem  like  a  picnic  excursion  ;  and  his  quick,  fear- 
less, yet  sympathetic  glance,  often  inspired  the  sinking 
heart  at  the  moment  of  danger.  Beyond  this,  he  was  a 
true  soldier,  in  caring  anxiously  for  the  comfort  of  his 
soldiers,  in  enforcing  rigid  discipline,  and  in  stimulating 
officers  and  men  to  excel  in  drill  and  all  service. 

At  the  close  of  the  war,  General  Leggett  became  Super- 
intendent and  Business  Manager  of  the  engine  works  at 
Zanesville  and  Newark,  Ohio,  the  largest  establishment  of 
the  kind  in  the  West,  where  he  remained,  till  he  was  called 
by  the  friend  who  remembered  his  brave  services  in 
the  peril  of  war, — to  the  administration  of  one  of  the 
most  important  branches  of  the  Government  service  in 
time  of  peace.  He  has  already  inaugurated  one  of  the 
most  potent  movements  toward  the  encouragement  of 
the  useful  arts,  ever  made  in  this  country — viz. :  the  pub- 
lication in  popular  form,  and  at  low  rates,  of  the  Patent 
Office  drawings  and  specifications. 

General  Leggett  has  a  clear  red-and-white  complexion, 
wide,  open  laughing  blue  eyes,  and  an  aspect  of  fresh 
health  which  amounts  to  youth.  His  frame  and  brain 
are  cast  in  herculean  mould.  He  is  a  man  of  muscle,  as 
well  as  mind — the  former  having  been  toughened  by  long 
geological  foot-tramps  through  the  mountains  of  Vir- 
ginia, as  well  as  by  the  exposures  of  war,  and  of  an  all- 
time  active  life. 

The  official  chair  of  General  Leggett  has  not  proved 
too  much  for  his  better  self,  as  it  does  for  so  many.  He 
meets  all  who  approach  him  with  a  smile  and  kind  word, 
apparently  not  forgetting  that  in  a  republic  the  potentate 
of  to-day  may  be  the  suppliant  of  to-morrow,  and  that 
at  any  rate,  but  one  man  at  a  time  can  be  a  Coimnis- 


THE    DISCOVERER   OF    PERPETUAL   MOTION.  455 

sioner  of  Patents.  He  brings  to  his  official  administration 
and  decisions  the  same  untiring  industry,  intelligence  and 
integrity ;  the  same  broad  views,  clear  insight  and  devo- 
tion to  duty,  which  in  every  previous  sphere  that  he  has 
filled  have  made  his  whole  life  an  honorable  success. 

With  all  its  comprehensive  cares,  one  side  of  the  Com- 
missioner's official  life  tends  to  jollity,  good  digestion,  and 
long  life.  In  no  other  position  in  the  world,  probably, 
could  a  man  discover  how  many  crazy  people  there  are 
outside  of  the  lunatic-  asylum.  The  born  inventor  is 
always  a  dreamer.  For  the  sake  of  his  darling  thought, 
he  is  willing  to  sacrifice  himself,  his  wife  and  children, 
every  thing  but  the  "  machine  "  growing  in  his  brain  and 
quickening  under  his  eager  hand.  How  often  they  fail  ! 
How  often  the  precious  thought,  developed  into  form,  is 
only  a  mistake — a  failure. 

Sometimes  this  is  sad — quite  as  often  it  is  funny.  The 
procession  which  started,  far  back  in  the  ages,  with  its 
machine  of  "  Perpetual  Motion,"  long  ago  reached  the 
doors  of  the  American  Patent  Office.  The  persons  found 
in  that  procession  are  sometimes  astonishing.  A  doctor 
of  divinity,  well-known  at  the  Capital,  and  not  suspected 
of  studying  any  machinery  but  that  of  the  moral  law, 
appeared  one  day  in  the  office  of  the  Commissioner. 

"  I  know  I've  got  it,"  he  said. 

"What,  sir?" 

"  PERPETUAL  MOTION,  sir.  Look  !  "  and  he  set  down 
a  little  machine.  "  If  the  floor  were  not  in  the  way,  if 
the  earth  were  not  in  the  way,  that  weight  would  never 
stop,  and  my  machine  would  go  on  forever.  I  know  this 
is  original  with  me — that  it  never  dawned  before  upon 
any  other  human  mind." 


456  TEN  TEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

So  enthusiastic  was  the  doctor,  it  was  with  difficulty  he 
could  be  restrained  from  depositing  his  ten  dollars  and 
leaving  his  experiment  to  be  patented.  The  Commis- 
sioner, quietly,  sent  to  the  library  for  a  book — a  history 
of  attempts  to  create  Perpetual  Motion.  Opening  at  a 
certain  page,  he  pointed  out  to  the  astonished  would-be  in- 
ventor, where  his  own  machine  had  been  attempted  and 
failed,  more  than  a  hundred  years  before.  The  reverend 
doctor  took  the  book  home,  read,  digested,  and  meditated 
thereon — to  bring  it  back  and  lay  it  down  before  the 
Commissioner,  in  silence.  No  one  has  ever  heard  him 
speak  of  Perpetual  Motion  since. 

It  would  take  a  large  volume,  to  record  all  the  prepos- 
terous letters  and  inventions  received  at  this  office.  A 
very  short  time  since,  a  man  sent  a  letter  to  the  Patent 
Bureau  describing  a  new  process  of  embalming  which  he 
had  originated.  It  was  accompanied  by  a  dead  baby — 
"  the  model  "  which  he  requested  should  be  placed  in  one 
of  the  glass  cases  of  the  Exhibition  Room.  He  considered 
himself  deeply  injured  when  his  request  was  refused. 

A  letter  was  recently  received  by  the  Commissioner 
of  Patents,  from  a  man  in  Portsmouth,  England,  offering 
this  Government  the  benefit  of  an  invention  of  his  own 
for  utilizing  water-power,  so  as  to-  force  the  water  to  a 
great  height  when  confined  in  reservoirs  constructed  for 
the  purpose.  Pie  offers  the  invention  free  of  all  charge, 
because,  he  states,  that  it  pains  him  to  see  "  such  mighty 
power  as  there  is  at  the  Niagara  wasted."  In  addition, 
he  offers  his  own  services  at  the  low  rate  of  £1,000  per 
annum,  to  build  and  operate  the  invention.  He  says  in 
his  letter,  that  "  if  the  mighty  great  power  in  Niagara 
was  accumulated,  it  would  move  a  great  deal."  He  also 


HOW   TO   KILL    THE    AMERICAN    LION.  457 

states  that  he  "  has  a  good  plan  for  a  velocipede  and  a 
bicicle,  that  he  thinks  would  be  a  good  thing  for  this 
country,"  but  admits  that  "people  in  England  don't  like 
it." 

Referring  again  to  his  water-power,  he  claims  that  if 
this  Government  would  build  the  road,  he  can  take  ships 
across  the  isthmus  of  Panama  "  in  a  box,  water  and  all." 

The  Commissioner  recently  received  the  following  com- 
munication from  the  Legation  of  the  United  States : 

PAEIS,  Dec.  3,  1872. 

"  SIR: — A  very  large  number  of  inventions  and  discoveries  are 
submitted  to  this  Legation,  with  the  request  that  we  shall  trans- 
mit them  to  Washington.  Most  of  them  are,  as  you  may  sup- 
pose, worthless.  We  have  had,  for  instance,  serious  plans  pro- 
posed for  the  extermination  of  all  the  lions  and  tigers  in  the 
United  States  by  the  use  of  catmint,  the  modus  operandi  being 
to  dig  an  immense  pit,  and  fill  it  with  this  herb.  The  well- 
known  love  of  the  feline  race  for  catmint  will  naturally  induce 
the  lions  and  tigers  to  jump  into  the  pit  and  roll  themselves 
upon  it ;  whereupon  concealed  hunters  are  to  appear  and 
slaughter  the  ferocious  animals. 

"  Another  plan  is  for  the  destruction  of  grasshoppers  upon 
the  plains  by  the  use  of  artillery;  it  being  perfectly  well  known 
that  concussion  kills  insects. 

"A  third  is  for  the  capture  of  a  besieged  city  by  the  use  of  a 
bomb  which,  upon  exploding,  shall  emit  so  foul  a  smell  that  the 
besieged  will  rush  headlong  from  the  walls,  and  fall  an  easy 
prey  to  the  besiegers." 

The  President  of  the  United  States  receives  many  let- 
ters of  like  character,  which  are  by  him  transmitted  to 
the  Bureau  of  Patents.  I  append  verbatim  copies  (includ- 
ing orthography)  of  three  which  represent  many  thous- 


458  TEN   YEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

ands  more  of  equal  intelligence  received  at  this  Depart- 
ment  of  the  Government. 

AUGUST  31st  1872 

MR.  U.  S.  GRANT  Sir  it  is  with  pleasure  I  take  this  oppor- 
tunity Of  writing  to  You  I  Am  well  at  Present  Hoping  those 
few  lines  will  find  you  enjoying  Good  health  And  prosperity  I 
am  doing  all  I  can  for  you  in  this  locality  and  I  hope  and  ex- 
pect you  will  be  our  next  President  Of  the  United  States  I 
would  like  to  have  ail  Office  of  Siveliseing  the  Indians  What 
Salary  will  you  give  me  per  Annum  please  Write  to  me  and 
let  me  no  in  fact  I  am  in  need  of  A  little  money  at  present 

Will  you  please  send  me  600  or  1000   dolors  to > 

Sumthing  Aught  to  be  done  for  the  poor  Indean  And  I  beleave 
that  I  can  sivelise  them.  If  you  will  give  me  200  or  300  per 
month  it  will  doo. 

MARCH  13  1873 

HON.  SIR  PRESEDEXT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMER- 
ICA I  announce  to  you  that  I  am  inventing  Perpetual  Motion 
I  have  once  had  my  paterns  stolen  or  I  should  had  the  machine 
in  running  order  before  this  and  I  have  altered  my  plan  so  that 
it  carrys  a  shaft  and  wheel  and  when  constructed  on  a  large 
plan  it  will  move  machinery,  And  being  on  a  new  plan  and 
different  from  all  others  and  I  am  sure  of  success  which  I  hope 
to  place  before  the  world  soon.  Though  in  consequence  of  poor 
health  and  not  having  the  means  to  work  with  it  will  take  some 
months  longer  to  accomplish  it  I  might  write  you  the  plan 
but  I  am  not  sure  that  you  will  receive  this  And  now  I  wish 
to  ask  a  few  questions  which  I  hope  you  will  answer  by  writing 
as  soon  as  you  receive  this 

1st  has  there  been  a  patent  granted  or  applied  for  on  per- 
petual motion 

2nd    has  the  Government  a  bounty  offered  to  the  inventor 
3d  when  the  Machine  is  in  perfect  running  order  and  shure 
that  it  will  go  without  stoping  will  you  and  a   man  from  the 


MODEST    REQUEST   OF   AN   INVENTOR.  459 

Patent  Office  come  on  and  grant  me  a  patent  and  fetch  me  the 
bounty  if  there  is  one. 

4th  is  there  eney  way  that  I  can  have  time  to  get  the  machine 
completed  before  others  can  apply  for  a  Patent 

Please  write  soon  and  address  

MAY  1872 

HON  FRIEND — Solicitor  of  Patents  I  have  invented  a  secret 
form  of  writing  expressly  for  the  use  of  our  gov  in  time  of 
warfare  the  publick  demands  it,  It  is  different  from  any  other 
invention  known  to  the  publick  in  this  or  any  gov.  It  consists 
simply  of  the  English  alphabet  and  can  be  changed  to  any  form 
that  the  safety  of  our  gov.  demands  it  no  higherglyphicks  are 
employed  but  it  is  practicable  and  safe  I  propose  to  sell  it  to 
our  gov  for  the  sum  of  one  million  dollars  I  will  meet  any 
committee  appointed  to  investigate  the  matter.  If  you  will  give 
me  your  influence  in  Congress  and  aid  in  bringing  a  sale  of  the 
invention  about  to  our  gov  or  any  other  I  will  reward  you  with 
the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars  (f  10,000)  It  is  no  illusion  or  a 
whim  of  the  brain  but  is  what  I  represent  it  to  be  scientific  prac- 
ticable and  safe,  Wishing  to  hear  from  you  on  the  subject  I 
remain 

Yours  most  truly 


CHAPTER  XLH. 

THE  WAE  DEPARTMENT. 

The  Secretary-of-War — Hig  Duties — The  Department  of  the  Navy— Effi- 
ciency of  the  Army — The  Custody  of  the  Flags — Patriotic  Trophies — The 
War  of  the  Rebellion — Captured  Flags — An  Ugly  Flag  and  a  Strange 
Motto — "  Crown  for  the  Brave  " — Sic  Semper  Tyrannis — The  Stars  and 
Stripes — The  Black  Flag — No  Quarter — The  Military  Establishment — 
The  Adjutant- General' s  Office— The  Quartermaster-General's  Office— 
The  Commissary- General's  Office — The  Paymaster-General— The  Sur- 
veyor-General— The  Engineer's  Office — The  Washington  Aqueduct — 
Topographical  Engineers — The  Ordnance  Bureau — The  War  Depart- 
ment Building — During  the  War — Lincoln's  Solitary  Walk — Secretary 
Stanton— The  Exigencies  of  War— The  Medical  History  of  the  War— 
Dr.  Hammond — Dr.  J.  H.  Baxter — Collecting  Physiological  Data — The 
Inspection  of  Over  Half  a  Million  Persons — Who  is  Unfit  for  Mili- 
tary Service — Various  Nationalities  Compared — Curious  Calculations 
Respecting  Height,  Health,  and  Color — Healthy  Emigrants — Remark- 
able Statistical  Results — The  Physical  Status  of  the  Nation. 

THE  first  recorded  legislation  of  importance  upofi  the 
military  affairs  of  the  nation,  is  the  Act  of  Con- 
gress, of  the  twenty-seventh  day  of  January,  1785,  en- 
titled "An  Ordinance  for  ascertaining  the  Powers  and 
Duties  of  the  Secretary  of  War." 

By  this  Act  the  duties  of  the  Secretary  are  defined ; 
and  amongst  them  is  a  provision  requiring  him  to  visit, 
"  at  least  once  a  year,"  "  all  the  magazines  and  deposits 
of  public  stores,  and  report  the  state  of  them,  with  proper 
arrangements,  to  Congress." 

Immediately  after  the  confederation  of  the  States,  by 


THE   WAR-DEPARTMENT.  461 

the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  this  legislation  was  su- 
perseded by  an  Act  of  Congress,  approved  on  the  seventh 
day  of  August,  1789,  defining  the  duties  of  the  depart- 
ment, which  was  again  modified  by  the  fifth  Congress,  in 
the  Act  of  the  thirtieth  day  of  April,  1798,  «  To  establish 
an  Executive  Department,  to  be  denominated  the  De- 
partment of  the  Navy."  Of  the  efficiency  of  this  de- 
partment, and  its  services  to  the  Republic,  there  can  be 
no  better  testimony  than  that  which  has  been  extorted 
from  history,  in  the  following  words :  "  The  United  States, 
from  the  peace  of  Independence,  in  1783,  achieved  by 
war,  and  merely  acknowledged  by  treaty,  have  always  (?) 
lost  by  treaty,  but  never  by  war." 

This  sentiment,  which  is  not  as  true  now  of  our  rela^ 
tions  with  Great  Britain  as  in  1814,  contains  within  it 
a  compliment  to  the  Department  which,  with  limited 
means,  and  encountering  the  natural  jealousy  of  civism, 
has  so  administered  its  scanty  finances  that  the  army  has 
been  made  not  only  a  defence  for  the  frontiers,  but  a  rec- 
ognized national  force,  equal  to  the  direst  emergency, 
a  nucleus  around  which,  in  any  peril,  the  strength  and 
bravery  of  the  Republic  may  safely  rally. 

By  the  Act  of  the  fourteenth  of  April,  1814,  the  Sec- 
retaries of  War  and  of  the  Navy  were  placed  in  custody 
of  the  flags,  trophies  of  war,  etc.,  to  deliver  the  same  for 
presentation  and  display  in  such  public  places  as  the  Pres- 
ident may  deem  proper.  Although  many  trophies,  which 
a  monarchical  power  would  have  jealously  preserved, 
have  been  lost,  or  at  least  detached  from  their  proper 
resting-place,  there  are  still  enough  in  both  departments 
to  stir  the  patriotic  emotions  of  all  who  take  the  trouble 
to  inquire  for  them. 


462  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

The  war  of  the  Rebellion  greatly  increased  these  tro- 
phies. The  Rebel  flags  taken  in  battle,  and  in  surrender, 
and  the  Union  flags,  re-captured  from  the  Confederates, 
now  occupy  large  apartments  in  two  buildings  belong- 
ing to  the  War  Department;  and  are  all  placed  under 
the  supervision  of  the  Adjutant-General.  In  "  Winder's 
Buildings "  hundreds  of  these  flags  are  deposited,  and 
many  hundreds  more  in  the  Adjutant-General's  office  on 
Seventeenth  street.  The  front  and  back  rooms  on  the 
lower  floor  of  the  latter  house  are  exclusively  devoted 
to  their  preservation.  A  polite  "orderly"  is  in  waiting, 
with  a  record-book,  which  gives  the  name  and  history 
of  every  flag  in  the  building.  The  front  room  is  devot- 
ed to  the  Union  colors  which  were  re-taken  from  the 
rebels.  The  back  room  is  filled  with  Confederate  flags 
of  every  device  and  hue.  Here  is  the  first  Confederate 
flag  adopted — an  ugly  rag,  thirteen  stars  on  a  blue  field, 
with  white  and  red  bars.  Its  motto :  "  We  will  collect 
our  own  revenues.  We  choose  our  own  institutions." 

The  colors  of  the  Benjamin  Infantry,  organized  April 
24,  1861,  bear  the  inscriptions:  "Crown  for  the  brave." 
"  Strike  for  your  altars  and  your  fires." 

An  Alabama  flag,  of  white  bunting,  with  broad  cross- 
bars of  blue,  sewed  on  by  women's  hands,  is  inscribed: 
"Our  Homes,  our  Rights,  we  entrust  to  your  keeping, 
brave  Sons  of  Alabama." 

"Sic  Semper  Tyrannis"  says  a  tattered  banner  of  fine 
silk,  presented  in  the  first  flush  of  rebellion-fever,  with 
the  confidence  of  assured  victory,  "by  the  ladies  of 
Norfolk,  to  the  N.  L.  A.  Blues."  Again,  says  Virginia: 
"Our  Rights  we  will  maintain."  "Death  to  Invaders 
covered  with  blood."  "  Death  or  Victory,"  cries  the 


BLOOD-STAINED  CONFEDERATE  BATTLE  FLAGS,  CAPTURED  DURING  THE  WAR. 

Sketched  by  permiuion  of  the  Government  from  the  large  collection  in  p.«we..ion  of  the  War  Department,  at  WaahinfftM. 
I.     Dlack  Flair.  4.    Stale  and  HeK:tn.  nt  unknown.     [Cap'ured  at  the  flalUe  of 

I.     Alaban-a  Fla*.  Oettyeburg.  by  the  60th  Regiment  of  New  York  Volu-  Wen  ] 

I.     falmetto  FlaK.  •..     Slate  Colen  of  North  Carolina: 


THE    HIDEOUS    BLACK   FLAG.  463 

Zachary  Rangers — and  again:     "Tyranny  is  hateful  to 
the  gods." 

With  the  exception  of  the  State  colors,  the  Union  flags 
bear  fewer  mottoes.  Many  are  fashioned  of  the  finest 
fabrics,  touched  with  the  most  exquisite  tints.  They 
need  no  florid  and  sensational  sentence.  Enough,  that 
they  bear  the  potent  and  silent  stars  of  indissoluble 
union : 

"  When  Freedom,  from  her  mountain  heigh*, 

Unfurled  her  standard  to  the  air, 

She  tore  the  azure  robe  of  night, 

And  set  the  stars  of  glory  there  ; 

She  mingled  with  the  gorgeous  dyes 

The  milky  baldrick  of  the  skies, 

And  striped  its  pure  celestial  white 

With  streakings  of  the  morning  light ; 

Then,  from  his  mansion  in  the  sun, 

She  called  her  eagle-bearer  down, 

And  gave  into  his  mighty  hand, 

The  symbols  of  her  chosen  land." 

Beside  this  Flag  of  the  Republic,  the  Black  Flag,  borne 
at  Winchester,  with  its  hideous  yellow  stripe,  and  hellish 
sentence,  "  No  Quarter,"  needs  no  comment.  From  floor 
to  nave,  they  droop  everywhere,  faded,  tattered,  bullet- 
riddled,  the  flags  of  Freedom,  and  the  ensigns  of  Slavery, 
defiant,  yet  doomed.  On  one  side  of  the  apartment, 
cases,  divided  into  minute  boxes,  rise  to  the  ceiling.  Each 
one  is  large  enough  to  take  a  flag  tightly  rolled.  Over 
all  hangs  a  curtain  ;  and  here  these  rags,  which  have  out- 
lasted the  wasting  march,  the  sore  defeat,  wait  to  tell 
their  story  in  silence  to  coming  generations. 

The  War  Department  is  now  divided  into  the  following 
Bureaus : 


464  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Secretary's  Office :  The  Secretary  of  War  is  charged, 
under  the  direction  of  the  President,  with  the  general 
control  of  the  military  establishment,  and  the  execu- 
tion of  the  laws  relating  thereto.  The  functions  of  the 
several  Bureaus  are  performed  under  his  supervision 
and  authority.  In  the  duties  of  his  immediate  office 
he  is  assisted  by  a  chief  clerk,  claims-and-disbursing 
clerk,  requisition-clerk,  registering-clerk,  and  three  re- 
cording-clerks. 

The  Adjutant-General's  Office  is  the  medium  of  com- 
munication to  the  army  of  all  general  and  special  orders 
of  the  Secretary-of-War  relating  to  matters  of  military 
detail.  The  rolls  of  the  army,  and  the  records  of  ser- 
vice are  kept,  and  all  military  commissions  prepared  in 
this  office. 

The  Quartermaster-General's  Office  has  charge  of  all 
matters  pertaining  to  barracks  and  quarters  for  the 
troops,  transportation,  camp  and  garrison-equipage,  cloth- 
ing, fuel,  forage,  and  the  incidental  expenses  of  the  mili- 
tary establishment. 

The  Commissary-General's  Office  has  charge  of  all 
matters  relating  to  the  procurement  and  issue  of  subsist- 
ence-stores in  the  army. 

The  Paymaster-General's  Office  has  the  general  direc- 
tion of  matters  relating  to  the  pay  of  the  army. 

The  Surgeon-General's  Office  has  charge  of  all  matters 
relating  to  the  medical  and  hospital  service. 

The  Engineer's  Office,  at  the  head  of  which  is  the. 
Chief  Engineer  of  the  army,  has  charge  of  all  matters  re- 
lating to  the  construction  of  the  fortifications,  and  to  the 
Military  Academy.  At  present,  the  Washington  Aque- 
duct is  being  built  under  its  direction.  The  Bureau  of 


LINCOLN'S    SOLITARY   WALK.  465 

Topographical  Engineers,  at  the  head  of  which  is  the  Chief 
of  the  Corps,  has  charge  of  all  matters  relating  to  river 
and  harbor  improvements,  the  survey  of  the  lakes,  the 
construction  of  military  works,  and  generally  of  all  mili- 
tary surveys. 

The  Ordnance  Bureau,  at  the  head  of  which  is  the 
chief  of  ordnance,  has  charge  of  all  matters  relating  to 
the  manufacture,  purchase,  storage,  and  issue  of  all  ord- 
nance, arms,  and  munitions  of  war.  The  management  of 
the  arsenals  and  armories  is  conducted  under  its  orders. 

The  present  building,  still  used  for  the  War  Depart- 
ment, is  utterly  inadequate  to  its  necessities.  Already 
its  Bureaus  are  scattered  in  several  transient  resting- 
places.  In  a  few  years  they  will  be  again  concentrated 
in  the  magnificent  structure  now  going  up,  for  the  com- 
bined use  of  the  State,  War  and  Navy  Departments. 

With  the  present  War  Department  building  will  be  ob- 
literated one  of  the  oldest  land-marks  of  the  Capital.  All 
through  the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  it  seemed  to  be  the 
temple  of  the  people,  to  which  the  whole  nation  came 
up,  as  they  did  to  the  temple  at  Jerusalem.  What  fates 
hung  upon  the  fiats  which  issued  from  its  walls !  Hither 
came  mother,  wife,  and  daughter,  to  seek  their  dead,  and 
to  supplicate  the  furlough  for  their  living  soldier.  What 
times  those  were,  when  the  very  life  of  the  nation  seemed 
suspended  upon  the  will  of  the  great  War  Secretary.  I 
cannot  look  at  the  trees  which  arch  the  avenue  between 
the  War  Department  and  the  President's  house,  without 
thinking  of  those  days  when  Lincoln  took  his  solitary 
walk  to  and  fro  to  consult  with  Stanton,  his  step  slow, 
his  eyes  sad,  over-weighted  with  responsibility  and  sor- 
row. And  going  down  Seventeenth  street,  who  that 

30 


466  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

ever  saw  him  can  fail  to  recall  the  image  of  Stanton  as 
he  paced  up  and  down  before  the  door  of  the  War  De- 
partment for  his  half-hour's  exercise,  when  he  held  him- 
self a  prisoner  within  its  walls. 

All  will  soon  be  gone — the  old  familiar  places  as  well 
as  the  old  familiar  faces.  The  grating  of  the  trowel, 
cementing  stone  on  stone,  the  ceaseless  click  of  the  ham- 
mer foretell  how  speedily  the  august  stone  structure,  with 
graceful  monoliths  and  turreted  roof  stretching  over  the 
vast  square,  will  take  the  place  of  the  old  War  Depart- 
ment. 

The  exigencies  of  war  not  only  augmented  the  business 
of  the  War  Department,  to  gigantic  proportions,  but  they 
created  important  Bureaus  which  have  survived  to  flourish 
in  times  of  peace ;  of  these,  none  are  so  interesting,  both 
to  scientists  and  to  citizens,  as  those  connected  with  the 
medical  history  of  the  war.  It  may  not  be  universally 
known  to  the  public,  but  the  medical  profession  has  long 
been  aware  that  the  immense  collection  of  cases  and 
treatment,  recorded  in  the  field  and  hospital  experiences 
of  the  late  war,  was  being  examined,  condensed,  tabu- 
lated, and  the  valuable  conclusion,  deducible  therefrom, 
prepared  for  publication,  under  the  direction  of  the  Sur- 
geon General  of  the  army. 

During  the  past  few  years  "circulars"  or  detached  por- 
tions of  the  work,  of  special  interest,  have  been  issued, 
and  this  spring  two  quarto  volumes,  being  the  first  parts 
of  the  first  two  volumes  of  the  entire  work,  have  been 
given  to  the  world. 

Part  I.  of  Volume  I.  is  devoted  to  medical  history,  and 
has  been  compiled  by  Dr.  Woodward,  an  assistant-sur- 
geon of  the  army.  This  is  a  volume  of  eleven  hundred 


THE  MEDICAL  HISTORY  OF  THE  WAK.       467 

pages,  and  is  divided  into  two  parts  and  an  appendix. 
The  parts  give  the  statistics  of  disease  and  death,  respect- 
ively, of  white  and  colored  troops.  The  appendix  consists 
of  reports  and  statements  of  medical  officers  and  their 
superiors. 

Part  I.  of  Volume  II.  commences  the  surgical  history, 
and  is  the  work  of  Dr.  Otis,  also  an  assistant-surgeon  of 
the  army,  and  well  known  as  the  curator  of  the  Army 
Medical  Museum.  It  contains  nearly  eight  hundred 
pages,  and  is  illustrated  by  numerous  photo-lithographs 
of  gunshot  wounds,  stumps  of  amputated  limbs,  and  va- 
rious other  injuries  of  the  human  body — all  evidences  of 
the  cruelties  of  war. 

The  merit  of  the  conception  of  this  vast  undertaking, 
is  due  to  the  former  Surgeon-General,  Dr.  Hammond, 
now  the  distinguished  physician  of  New  York  city. 

In  1862  he  devised  the  form  and  routine  for  copious  and 
precise  returns  of  hospital  treatment,  and  under  his  ener- 
getic supervision,  Dr.  Brinton  of  the  volunteer  corps,  and 
Doctors  Woodward  and  Otis,  commenced  the  "Medical 
and  Surgical  History  of  the  War  of  the  Rebellion." 

The  work  was  ably  continued  by  Dr.  Barnes,  the  for- 
mer Surgeon-General,  and  the  result  of  all  these  labors 
is,  so  far,  seen  in  the  two  volumes  described,  for  the  pub- 
lication of  which  an  appropriation  was  made  by  Congress 
in  June,  1868.  It  is  supposed  that  the  entire  work  will 
reach  six,  and  perhaps  eight,  such  parts,  and  it  certainly 
will  be,  when  completed,  a  noble  evidence  of  the  liberal- 
ity with  which  the  Government  provided  for  its  sick  and 
wounded  soldiers,  who  fought  for  its  preservation,  and  of 
the  patriotism  of  the  men  who  suffered  in  supporting  such 
Government. 


468  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Brevet  Major-General  Joseph  K.  Barnes,  Surgeon-Gen- 
eral of  the  United  States  Army,  was  born  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  appointed  Assistant-Surgeon  United  States  Army  from 
that  State,  June,  1840,  and  stationed  at  the  United  States 
Military  Academy,  West  Point,  N.  Y.,  until  November  of 
that  year.  He  served  in  the  Florida  war  against  the 
Seminole  Indians  to  1842  ;  at  Fort  Jesup,  La.,  to  1846  ; 
in  the  war  with  Mexico  to  1848  ;  at  Baton  Rouge,  La., 
and  in  Texas  the  same  year,  at  Baltimore,  Md.,  to  1851 ; 
in  Missouri,  to  1854  ;  again  at  the  United  States  Mili- 
tary Academy,  West  Point,  N.  Y.,  to  1857  ;  in  California 
and  at  Fort  Vancouver,  W.  T.,  to  1861;  at  the  head-quar- 
ters of  General  Hunter,  Western  Department  and  Depart- 
ment of  Kansas  to  1862. 

He  was  promoted  to  be  surgeon  in  the  United  States 
Army,  August,  1856 ;  Lieutenant  Colonel  and  Medical  In- 
spector, February,  1863  ;  Colonel  and  Medical  Inspector- 
General,  August,  1863 ;  and  was  assigned  duty  as  Acting- 
Surgeon-General,  United  States  Army,  in  the  same  month ; 
appointed  Brigadier-General  and  Surgeon-General,  United 
States  Army,  August,  1864  ;  Brevetted  Major-General, 
United  States  Army,  for  faithful  and  meritorious  services 
during  the  war. 

Another  medical  report,  perhaps  equal  in  value  to  the 
Surgeon  General's,  has  issued  from  the  medical  branch  of 
the  Provost-Marshal-General's  Bureau,  under  the  super- 
vision of  Dr.  J.  H.  Baxter. 

Dr.  Jedediah  H.  Baxter,  Lieutenant- Colonel  and  Chief 
Medical-Purveyor,  United  States  Army,  was  born  in  Straf- 
ford,  Orange  County,  Vt.,  May  11, 1837.  He  was  gradu- 
ated at  the  University  of  Vermont,  both  in  the  academi- 
cal and  medical  departments,  and  in  1860  served  as  assist- 


THE    CHIEF   MEDICAL    OFFICER.  469 

ant  professor  of  anatomy  *and  surgery  in  that  University. 
He  was  house  surgeon  in  "Bellevue  Hospital"  at  the  "Sea- 
men's Retreat,"  Staten  Island,  and  on  "  Blackwell's  Island." 
,  He  entered  the  Twelfth  Regiment  of  Massachusetts  Vol- 
unteers in  April,  1861,  was  commissioned  assistant-sur- 
geon of  the  Regiment,  May  13, 1861,  and  promoted  to  be 
surgeon,  June  19,  1861.  Served  as  post  surgeon  at  Fort 
Warren,  Boston  Harbor,  until  July  26,  1861,  when,  with 
his  regiment,  he  was  mustered  into  the  United  States  ser- 
vice and  ordered  to  join  the  forces  then  forming  under  Gen. 
N.  P.  Banks  at  Sandy  Hook,  Md.,  opposite  Harper's  Fer- 
ry. He  was  Acting-Brigade-Surgeon,  until  April  4, 1862, 
when,  promoted  to  Brigade-Surgeon  of  Volunteers,  he 
was  ordered  to  report  for  duty  to  Gen.  Geo.  B.  McClellan, 
and  served  on  the  staff  of  that  officer  during  the  Penin- 
sular campaign,  as  Medical  Director  of  Field-Hospitals 
and  the  transportation  of  sick  and  wounded  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac. 

Disabled  from  field  service  by  the  "  peninsular  fever," 
he  was  ordered  to  hospital  duty  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  Au- 
gust 1, 1862,  and  was  in  charge  of  Judiciary  Square  United 
States  General  Hospital  until  September,  1862,  when  he 
was  ordered  to  superintend  the  building  of  Campbell 
United  States  General  Hospital,  Washington,  D.  C.,  of 
which  Hospital,  when  completed,  he  was  placed  in  charge, 
where  he  remained  until  January  5, 1864,  when  he  was  re- 
lieved and  ordered  to  report  for  special  duty  to  the  Provost- 
Marshal-General  of  the  United  States,  who  assigned  him 
to  duty  as  "  Chief  Medical  Officer  of  the  ProvostrMarslial- 
General's  Bureau."  In  this  capacity  he  served,  having 
the  management  of  all  medical  matters  pertaining  to  the 
recruitment  of  the  army,  until  the  close  of  the  war,  hav- 


470  TEN   TEAKS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

ing  been  Brevetted  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the"*  United 
States  Volunteers  in  March,  1865,  and  Colonel  of  the 
United  States  Volunteers  in  January,  1866. 

When  the  Provost-Marshal-General's  Bureau  was  abol-  < 
ished,  he  was  placed  on  special  duty  by  an  Act  of  Con- 
gress, in  preparing  a  report  of  the  medical  statistics  of 
the  Provost-Marshal-General's  Bureau.  On  July  20, 1866, 
he  was  commissioned  Assistant-Medical-Purveyor,  United 
States  Army,  with  the  rank  of  Lieutenant-Colonel  and 
was  Brevetted  Colonel  "  for  faithful  and  meritorious  ser- 
vices during  the  war."  He  was  promoted  to  the  position 
of  Chief  Medical  Purveyor  of  the  United  States  Army, 
March  12,  1872,  in  which  position  he  has  supervision  of 
the  purchase  and  distribution  of  all  hospital  and  medical 
supplies  required  for  the  use  of  the  army. 

On  being  called  to  the  charge  of  the  medical  branch 
of  the  Provost-Marshal-General's  Bureau,  Dr.  Baxter  soon 
perceived  that,  in  the  several  Acts  of  Congress  devolving 
upon  the  Provost-Marshal-General  the  duty  of  recruiting 
by  voluntary  enlistment,  conscription  and  substitution, 
the  vast  armies  called  out  to  suppress  the  rebellion,  lay 
the  means  of  obtaining  such  a  view  of  the  physical  state 
and  military  capacity  of  the  nation  as  had  never  before 
and  might  never  again  be  obtained.  After  an  examina- 
tion of  such  material  as  had  already  accumulated  under 
the  limited  operation  of  the  draft  and  recruiting  Acts,  he 
prepared  and  issued  to  the  surgeons  of  the  enrolling 
boards,  in  the  several  congressional  districts,  blank  forms 
and  instructions  designed  to  afford  the  means  of  tabula- 
ting from  the  reports  of  individual  examinations  of  re- 
cruits, drafted  men  and  substitutes,  the  statistics  illustra- 
ting the  relations  between  disease  and  nativity,  residence, 


THE   MEDICAL   HISTORY    OF   THE   WAR.  471 

age,  complexion,  height,  and  size,  social  condition  and 
occupation  in  the  sex  on  which  the  principal  physical 
burdens  of  life  fall. 

The  accumulating  records  of  the  medical  department 
of  the  army  could  be  utilized  for  the  benefit  of  military 
surgery  and  hygiene  by  showing  the  varying  facts  of  dis- 
ease and  wounds  among  soldiers,  and  the  records  of  pen  - 
sion  applications  and  the  regularly  recurring  examinations 
of  invalid  pensioners  would  give  the  results  of  non-fatal 
wounds  and  disease  upon  the  disabled  soldier  returned  to 
civil  life.  But  Dr.  Baxter  saw  that  a  separate  and  import- 
ant field  of  study  and  action  was  left  to  his  own  bureau, 
if  its  current  records  could  be  reduced  to  a  system  of  ful- 
ness, accuracy  and  uniformity.  This  was  successfully 
done,  and  the  results  will  soon  be  before  the  public.  From 
advance  sheets  of  the  volume,  many  interesting  facts 
have  been  drawn  for  this  article.  The  work  is  based 
on  the  reports  made  of  the  medical  inspection  of  about 
605,000  persons  subject  to  draft,  and  minuter  descriptions 
of  the  fuller  examination  of  508,735  recruits,  substitutes 
and  drafted  men. 

Of  the  whole  number  examined,  a  little  over  257  in 
each  thousand  were  found  unfit  for  military  service.  The 
largest  number  found  disqualified  through  any  specific 
class  of  diseases  were  those  affected  by  diseases  of  the 
digestive  organs,  the  ratio  of  unfitness  to  the  whole  num- 
ber examined  being  a  little  more  than  sixty  in  a  thousand. 
Fifty  nativities  are  embraced  in  the  report,  the  ratio  of 
unfitness  in  each  thousand  being,  for  American  whites, 
323  ;  American  colored,  225  ;  Canadians,  258 ;  Irish,  337; 
Germans,  400 ;  Scandinavians,  294 ;  English,  325 ;  and 
Scotch,  308. 


472  TEN   YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

From  these  ratios  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Negroes,  Can- 
adians and  Scandinavians  were  the  healthiest,  and  the 
Germans  and  Irish  the  unhealthiest.  The  relative  posi- 
tion assigned  to  the  negro  by  these  figures  is  not  in  ac- 
cord with  the  general  opinion  upon  the  subject,  but  the 
healthiness  of  unskilled  occupations  and  his  simple  method 
of  life  in  the  South  accounts  for  the  fact.  The  report  also 
shows  that  a  larger  proportion  of  civilians  are  fit  for  mil- 
itary duty  in  this  country  than  in  Great  Britain  or  France, 
and  probably  Germany,  though  the  figures  to  prove  the 
proposition  in  the  latter  case  are  not  at  hand. 

Of  the  recruits,  conscripts  and  substitutes  under  twenty 
years  of  age,  the  ratio  of  rejection  and  exemption  was  268 
in  the  thousand,  including  those  too  young  for  service ; 
between  twenty  and  twenty-five  years,  the  ratio  was  245; 
between  twenty-five  and  thirty,  the  ratio  was  330 ;  it 
was  411  between  thirty  and  thirty-five  ;  between  thirty- 
five  and  forty  it  was  462,  and  over  forty  years  it  was 
607  in  a  thousand,  including  all  rejected  for  dotage. 

This  table  bears  out  the  common  experience  that  infirm- 
ities grow  with  age.  Of  the  native  whites,  663  in  a  thou- 
sand were  of  light  complexion ;  of  Canadians,  661  in  a 
thousand;  of  English,  705;  of  Irish,  702;  and  of  German, 
694 — indicating,  by  the  lower  ratio  of  fair  complexion,  a 
greater  admixture  of  races  in  this  country  than  in  the 
parent  countries.  Of  persons  of  light  complexion,  385  in 
the  thousand  were  unfit  for  service,  while  the  dark  com- 
plexions show  the  healthier  ratio  of  332  in  each  thousand. 
The  average  height  of  Americans  is  found  to  be  5  feet 
7£  inches,  of  Canadians  5.5,  5.1,  of  Irish  and  Germans 
5.5,  5.4,  of  Scandinavians  and  English  5.6,  0,  and  of 
French  one-fifth  of  an  inch  lower  than  the  last  named. 


INTERESTING  AND    CURIOUS   STATISTICS.  473 

All  under  five  feet  were  rejected  or  exempted,  as  the  case 
might  be ;  and  the  rejections  under  5  feet  1  inch  were  582 
in  the  thousand,  between  5.1  and  5.3  they  were  443,  be- 
tween 5.3  and  5.5  they  were  322,  between  5.5  and  5.7  they 
were  303,  between  5.7  and  5.9  they  were  313,  between 
5.9  and  5.11  they  were  326,  between  5.11  and  6.1  they 
were  350,  and  they  were  358  in  all  over  6  feet  1  inch. 
The  healthiest  persons  were  those  of  the  average  height 
of  5  feet  7  inches. 

The  chest  measurements,  at  moment  of  respiration,  av- 
eraged 33.11  inches  for  Americans,  32.84  for  Irish,  33.56 
for  Germans,  33.01  for  Canadians  and  32.93  for  English. 
The  detailed  statistics  of  height  and  size  bear  out  the 
statement  that,  as  a  rule,  only  healthy  foreigners  migrate 
from  the  Old  to  the  New  World  and  healthy  natives  from 
the  old  to  the  new  States ;  both  conclusions  are  quite  rea- 
sonable, when  the  anticipated  and  real  hardships  of  migra- 
tion are  considered. 

Considering  the  figures  relating  to  occupation,  it  is 
found  that  the  ratio  of  unfitness  for  army  life  was  409  in 
a  thousand  among  persons  engaged  in  in-door  pursuits,  and 
only  349  in  a  thousand,  in  persons  of  out-door  callings. 

Taken  by  trades  and  professions,  it  appears  that  of 
journalists  740  in  a  thousand  were  disqualified,  physicians 
670,  clergymen  and  preachers  654,  dentists  549,  lawyers 
544,  tailors  473,  teachers  455,  photographers  451,  mercan- 
tile clerks  416,  painters  392,  carpenters  383,  stone-cutters 
376,  shoe-makers  362,  laborers  358,  farmers  350,  printers 
335,  tanners  216,  iron-workers  189.  The  average  ratio 
of  disability  among  professional  men  was  520  in  a  thou- 
sand, merchants  480,  artisans  484,  and  unskilled  laborers 
348  only. 


474  TEN   YEAKS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

The  journalists,  doctors  and  clergymen  were  the  tin- 
healthiest  professional  men,  and  teachers  and  musicians 
the  healthiest.  Brokers  were  the  unhealthiest  of  the 
mercantile  class,  and  shop-keepers  and  peddlers  the 
healthiest.  Iron  and  leather-workers  were  the  health- 
iest of  the  artisans ;  in  the  first  occupation,  partly,  because 
only  robust  men  can  follow  it.  Paper-makers,  tailors  and 
upholsterers  appear  to  have  been  the  unhealthiest  trades. 
Of  unskilled  occupations,  so-called,  for  the  purposes  of 
this  work,  miners  and  mariners  were  the  healthiest,  and 
watchmen,  bar-keepers  and  fishermen  the  unhealthiest. 
Explanation  is  found  in  the  case  of  watchmen,  in  the 
number  of  old  and  broken-down  men  following  that  vo- 
cation. The  ratio  of  single  men  found  disqualified  was 
393  in  a  thousand,  and  of  married  men  447  in  a  thousand; 
the  difference,  however,  being  no  argument  against  mar- 
riage, as  the  latter  class  embraces  a  larger  proportion  of 
men  beyond  middle  age. 

Congress  has  provided  liberally  for  the  publication  of 
Dr.  Baxter's  medical  statistics  of  drafts  and  recruitments, 
and  the  volume  will  contain  shaded  maps  and  diagrams, 
to  aid  in  exhibiting  and  contrasting  the  results  of  his 
unique  studies  of  the  physical  status  of  the  nation. 


CHAPTER  XLHI. 

THE  ARMY   MEDICAL   MUSEUM—  ITS   CURIOSITIES   AND 
WONDERS. 

Ford's  Theatre  —  Its  Interesting  Memories  —  The  Last  Festivities  —  Assassin- 
ation of  President  Lincoln  —  Two  Years  Later  —  Effects  of  "  War,  Dis- 
ease, and  Human  Skill  "  —  Collection  of  Pathological  Specimens  —  The 
Army  Medical  Museum  Opened  —  Purchase  of  Ford's  Theatre  —  Its  Pres- 
ent Aspect  —  Ghastly  Specimens  —  Medical  and  Surgical  Histories  of  the 
War—  The  Library—  A  Book  Four  Centuries  Old—  Rare  Old  Volumes— 
The  Most  Interesting  of  the  National  Institutions  —  Various  Opinions  —  • 
Effects  on  Visitors  —  An  Extraordinary  Withered  Arm  —  A  Dried  Sioux 
Baby  !—  Its  Poor  Little  Nose—  A  Well-dressed  Child—  Its  Buttons  and 
Beads  —  Casts  of  Soldier-Martyrs  —  Making  a  New  Nose—  Vassear's  Mount- 
ed Craniums  —  Model  Skeletons  —  A  Giant,  Seven  Feet  High  —  Skeleton 
of  a  Child—  All  that  Remains  of  Wilkes  Booth,  the  Assassin—  Fractures 
by  Shot  and  Shell—  General  Sickles  Contributes  His  Quota—  A  Case  of 
Skulls  —  Arrow-head  Wounds  —  Nine  Savage  Sabre-Cuts  —  Seven  Bullets 
in  One  Head  —  Phenomenal  Skulls  —  A  Powerful  Nose  —  An  Attempted 
Suicide  —  A  Proverb  Corrected  —  Specimen  from  the  Paris  Catacombs  — 
An  "  Interesting  Case  "  —  Typical  Heads  of  the  Human  Race  —  Remark- 
able Indian  Relics—"  Flatheads  "—The  Work  of  Indian  Arrows—  An  Ex- 
traordinary Story  —  A  "  Pet  "  Curiosity  —  A  Japanese  Manikin  —  Tattooed 
Heads  —  Representatives  of  Animated  Nature  —  Adventure  of  Captain 
John  Smith  —  A  "Stingaree"  —  The  Microscopical  Division  —  Medical 
Records  of  the  War—  Preparing  Specimens. 


E  building  in  which  Abraham  Lincoln  was  assassin- 
-L  ated  will  always  retain  a  deep  and  sad  interest  in 
the  mind  of  the  American  people.  It  was  well  that  it 
should  be  consecrated  to  a  national  purpose.  None  could 
be  more  fit  than  to  make  it  the  repository  of  the  Patho- 
logical and  Surgical  results  of  the  war. 


476  TEN   TEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

From  the  dark  hour  of  the  great  martyr's  death,  the 
light  and  music  of  amusement  never  again  animated 
these  dark  halls.  But  in  two  years  from  the  day  of  the 
tragedy,  its  doors  were  opened  to  the  people,  to  come  in 
and  behold  what  war,  disease,  death,  and  human  skill 
had  wrought. 

In  obedience  to  an  order  from  the  War  Department, 
issued  in  1862,  thousands  of  pathological  specimens  had 
accumulated  in  the  office  of  the  Surgeon-General.  An 
ample  and  fit  receptacle  was  needed  for  their  proper  care 
and  display.  And  April  13,  1867,  the  old  Ford  Theatre, 
on  Tenth  street,  between  E  and  F,  was  opened  as  the 
Army  Medical  Museum. 

Congress  had  already  purchased  the  building  of  Mr. 
Ford,  and  used  it  for  a  time  as  the  receptacle  for  the 
captured  archives  of  the  Confederate  Government.  Be- 
fore it  was  opened  as  the  Army  Museum,  its  interior  had 
been  entirely  remodeled,  retaining  nothing  of  the  orig- 
inal building  but  the  outside  walls.  It  has  been  made 
fire-proof,  aud  is  exclusively  devoted  to  the  uses  of  the 
Museum.  The  third  story  is  the  Museum  hall,  lined  on 
its  four  sides  with  pictures  and  glass  cases  filled  with 
ghastly  specimens,  beside  many  more  in  the  interior  of 
the  room. 

Over  a  square  railing,  in  the  centre  of  the  hall,  you 
look  down  upon  the  second  story,  and  through  that  to 
the  first.  The  lower  floor  is  filled  with  busy  clerks,  sitting 
at  tables,  writing  out  the  medical  and  surgical  histories  of 
the  war. 

The  second  floor,  which  is  reached  by  light  spiral  stairs 
from  the  first,  is  largely  devoted  to  the  very  valuable 
Medical  and  Surgical  Library,  which  has  been  collected 


THE   ARMY   MEDICAL   MUSEUM.  477 

since  the  opening  of  the  Museum.  It  now  numbers 
thirty-eight  thousand  volumes,  some  of  which  are  rare 
books  of  extreme  value.  One  of  these  was  among  the 
earliest  of  printed  volumes.  The  art  of  printing  was 
first  used  to  give  to  the  world  religious  and  nuedical 
books.  This  treasure  of  the  Medical  Museum  was  pub- 
lished at  Venice,  in  1480,  and  is  the  work  of  Petrus  de 
Argelata.  It  is  bound  and  illuminated  in  vellum.  An- 
other choice  book,  is  a  copy  of  Galen,  which  once  be- 
longed to  the  Dutch  anatomist,  Vierodt,  and  copiously  an- 
notated by  him.  These,  and  many  other  valuable  books, 
have  been  bought  by  the  agents  of  the  Museum,  abroad, 
while  many  others  have  been  received  as  contributions 
from  physicians,  and  scientific  societies  interested  in  the 
growth  of  this  national  institution. 

Louis  Bagger,  in  a  late  number  of  Appleton's  Journal, 
speaks  of  the  Army  Medical  Museum  as  one  of  the  most 
interesting,  but  least  visited,  of  all  the  national  institu- 
tions in  Washington.  It  cannot  fail  to  be  one  of  the 
most  absorbing  spots  on  earth  to  the  student  of  surgery 
or  medicine ;  but  to  the  unscientific  mind,  especially  to 
one  still  aching  with  the  memories  of  war,  it  must  ever 
remain  a  museum  of  horrors.  Its  many  bones,  which 
never  ached,  and  which  have  survived  their  painful 
sheaths  of  mortal  flesh,  all  cool  and  clean,  and  rehung  on 
golden  threads,  are  not  unpleasant  to  behold.  But  those 
faces  in  frames,  eaten  by  cancer  or  lost  in  tumors,  which 
you  look  up  to  as  you  enter,  are  horrible  enough  to  haunt 
one  forever  (if  you  are  not  scientific)  with  the  thought 
of  what  human  flesh  is  heir  to. 

No !  the  Museum  is  a  very  interesting,  but  can  never  be 
a  popular  place  to  visit.  I  doubt  if  a  sight  at  the  Sioux 


478  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

pappoose,  and  a  bit  of  John  Wilkes  Booth's  spinal  mar- 
row, or  a  piece  of  General  Sickles'  leg,  will  be  sufficient 
compensation  to  the  average  unscientific  mind,  to  go 
twice  to  look  at  those  terrible  tumors  and  elephantiasis  in 
gilt  frames  and  glass  jars.  It  is  enough  to  make  one  feel 
as  if  the  like  were  starting  out  all  over  you.  But  that 's 
because  you  are  not  scientific. 

The  first "  specimen  "  which  confronts  you  on  entering  is 
a  withered  human  arm,  with  contracted  hand  and  clinched 
fingers,  mounted  on  wires  in  a  glass  case  on  the  window- 
ledge.  The  sharp  bone  protrudes  where  it  was  shot  off 
near  the  shoulder  joint;  every  muscle  is  defined;  the  skin 
looks  like  tanned  leather.  It  is  not  pleasant  to  look  at.  A 
thrilling  story  has  been  printed  about  this  arm.  I  am 
sorry  it  is  not  wholly  true.  The  one  I  have  to  tell  will 
not  please  you  as  well,  for  it  is  not  nearly  as  exciting. 

We  were  told  that  the  shock  of  the  cannon-shot,  which 
took  off  this  arm,  carried  it  up  into  a  high  tree,  where,  a 
year  or  two  after,  its  owner,  a  Gettysburg  hero,  revisiting 
the  battle-field,  discovered  his  lost  member  lodged  in  the 
branches,  brought  it  down  and  bore  it  hither  as  a  trophy. 
The  soldier  did  find  his  arm  (I  am  telling  the  true  story) ; 
but  he  found  it  in  a  corn-field.  By  what  mark  he  knew 
it  I  am  not  informed,  but  he  declared  it  to  be  his  arm, 
and  brought  it  to  the  Museum  as  a  first-class  "  sensational 
specimen." 

In  the  next  window  we  find  another  one — the  Sioux 
baby.  Poor  little  baby !  It  is  not  a  Modoc — though  not 
much  better — it  did  not  live  to  slay  our  brethren,  so  we 
are  sorry  as  we  look  at  it — for  its  once  black  locks  are 
bleached  red,  and  its  nose  is  gone.  It  was  found  in  a 
tree  near  Fort  Laramie.  I  have  seen  Sioux  babies  alive 


THE  AKMY  MEDICAL  MUSEUM.          479 

upon  their  native  soil,  and  can  testify  from  personal  ob- 
servation that  this  little  pappoose-miimmy  is  extraordi- 
narily well  dressed.  Hannah  of  old  did  not  sew  more 
buttons  on  the  coat  of  her  little  Samuel  in  the  Temple, 
than  this  poor  savage  mother  did  on  the  plains  of  Wyo- 
ming. It  is  of  blue  flannel,  profusely  ornamented  with 
round  tin  buttons,  and  many  beads  on  its  broad  collar. 
On  its  neck  it  wears  a  string  of  white  delf  beads,  and 
there  is  something  cunning  and  dainty  in  the  tiny  em- 
broidered moccasins  upon  its  feet.  In  a  case  there  is  an- 
other pappoose  still  less  agreeable  to  contemplate.  It  is  a 
little  Flat-head  Indian.  Its  head  is  so  very  flat  no  doubt 
it  died  in  the  process  of  compression.  This  melancholy 
child  also  wears  a  white  necklace,  and  was  found  buried 
in  a  tree. 

Passing  on,  we  are  arrested  by  a  table  surrounded  on  its 
outer  edge  by  plaster  casts  of  soldiers  who  have  under- 
gone famous  and  difficult  surgical  operations.  It  is  grat- 
ifying to  know  that,  if  you  lose  your  nose  by  some  other 
collision  beside  that  of  a  cannon  ball,  you  can  have 
a  new  one  set  on  made  out  of  your  cheek.  The  new 
nose  will  grow  to  the  root  of  the  old  one,  and  the  hole  in 
your  cheek  will  fill  up  and  the  scar  heal.  To  be  sure  it 
will  hurt  you  frightfully  ;  but  you  can  have  a  new  nose 
made,  and  you  yourself  supply  the  material.  If  you 
don't  believe  it,  come  to  the  Army  Medical  Museum  and 
see !  Here  is  the  head  of  the  poor  fellow  with  his  nose 
shot  off — and  here  is  another  with  the  new  nose  grown 
on. 

In  the  centre  of  the  table  are  some  of  Vassear's  mounted 
craniums,  purchased  for  the  museum  by  order  of  the 
Surgeon-General.  These  craniums,  with  the  skeletons  in 


480  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

the  cases,  are  mounted  after  Blanch£ne's  method,  which 
allows  every  portion  to  be  taken  apart  and  put  together 
again.  This  cranium  on  the  table  is  as  white  as  crystal ; 
it  is  mounted  on  gold,  and  tiny  blue  and  crimson  threads 
of  silk  trace  from  chin  to  head-top  the  entire  nerve  sys- 
tem. It  is  a  work  of  exquisite  art  as  well  as  of  science, 
and  in  no  sense  repulsive.  The  glass  cases  just  in  the 
rear  contain  skeletons  mounted  by  the  same  method. 
One  is  the  skeleton  of  a  giant,  in  life  seven  feet  high, 
prepared  by  Auzoax  and  mounted  by  Blanch£ne's  method. 
It  is  as  white  as  snow,  and  its  brass  or  gold  joints  (we 
will  call  them  gold)  are  bright  and  flexile.  Another,  of 
a  child  of  some  six  years,  shows  the  entire  double  sets 
of  first  and  second  teeth.  The  first,  not  one  tooth  gone, 
and  above,  in  the  jaw,  the  entire  row  of  second  teeth 
ready  to  push  the  first  ones  out. 

Amid  the  thousands  of  mounted  specimens  in  glass 
cases,  which  reveal  the  freaks  of  bullets  and  cannon-shot, 
we  come  to  one  which  would  scarcely  arrest  the  at- 
tention of  a  casual  observer.  It  is  simply  three  human 
vertebras  mounted  on  a  stand  and  numbered  4,086.  Be- 
side it  hangs  a  glass  phial,  marked  4,087,  filled  with  alco- 
hol, in  which  floats  a  nebulas  of  white  matter.  The  offi- 
cial catalogue  contains  the  following  records  of  these 
apparently  uninteresting  specimens : 

"  No.  4,086.— The  third,  fourth  and  fifth  cervical  vertebrae. 
A  conoidal  carbine  ball  entered  the  right  side,  comminuting  the 
base  of  the  right  lamina  of  the  fourth  vertebras,  fracturing  it 
longitudinally  and  separating  it  from  the  spinous  process,  at  the 
same  time  fracturing  the  fifth  through  its  pedicles,  and  involving 
that  transverse  process.  The  missile  passed  directly  through 
the  canal,  with  a  slight  inclination  downward  and  to  the  rear, 


REMAINS    OF   JOHN   WILKES    BOOTH.  481 

emerging  through  the  left  bases  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  laminae, 
which  are  comminuted,  and  from  which  fragments  were  embed- 
ded in  the  muscles  of  the  neck.  The  bullet,  in  its  course, 
avoided  the  large  cervical  vessels.  From  a  case  where  death 
occurred  in  a  few  hours  after  injury,  April  26,  1865." 

"  No.  4,087.— -A  portion  of  the  spinal-cord  from  the  cervical 
region,  transversely  perforated  from  right  to  left  by  a  carbine- 
bullet,  which  fractured  the  laminae  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  ver- 
tebrae. The  cord  is  much  torn  and  is  discolored  by  blood. 
From  a  case  where  death  occurred  a  few  hours  after  injury, 
April  26,  1865." 

Such  are  the  colorless  scientific  records  of  the  death 
wounds  of  John  Wilkes  Booth.  All  that  remains  of  him 
above  the  grave  finds  its  perpetual  place  a  few  feet  above 
the  spot  where  he  shot  down  his  illustrious  victim. 

It  has  been  recorded  elsewhere  that  the  fatal  wounds 
of  Wilkes  Booth  and  his  victim  were  strikingly  alike. 
"  The  balls  entered  the  skull  of  each  at  nearly  the  same 
spot,  but  the  trifling  difference  made  an  immeasurable 
difference  in  the  sufferings  of  the  two.  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
unconscious  of  all  pain,  while  his  assassin  suffered  as  ex- 
quisite agony  as  if  he  had  been  broken  on  a  wheel." 

In  the  surgical  division  which  contains  the  above  speci- 
mens we  find  illustrations  from  living  and  dead  subjects 
of  almost  every  conceivable  fracture  by  shot  and  shell. 

On  a  black  stand,  bearing  the  number  1,335,  we  see  a 
strong  white  bone  shattered  in  the  middle.  The  official 
statement  concerning  it  is :  "  The  right  tibia  and  fibula 
comminuted  in  three  shafts  by  a  round  shell.  Major- 
General  D.  E.  S.,  United  States  Volunteers,  Gettysburg, 
July  2,  amputated  in  the  lower  third  of  the  thigh  by 
Surgeon  T.  Sim,  United  States  Volunteers,  on  the  field, 
31 


482  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

Stump  healed  rapidly,  and  subject  was  able  to  ride  in 
carriage  July  16  ;  completely  healed,  so  that  he  mounted 
his  horse,  in  September,  1863.  Contributed  by  the  sub- 
ject " — who  is  General  Daniel  E.  Sickles. 

One  of  the  cases  in  this  division  is  filled  with  skulls 
which  show  gunshot  wounds  from  arrow-heads  and 
thrusts  from  tomahawks  and  sabres.  One  of  the  latter, 
No.  970,  shows  nine  savage  sabre  cuts.  It  is  the  skull 
of  an  Araucanian  Indian,  killed  by  Chilian  troops.  Near 
it  is  the  skull  of  another  Indian,  riddled  by  six  or  seven 
bullet-shots  received  from  American  troops  or  trappers. 

The  Museum  contains  eight  craniums,  which  illustrate 
the  wonderful  fact  of  an  unbroken  external  skull,  while 
the  vitreous  table  is  perforated  or  dented.  One  of  these 
shows  slight  discoloration  on  the  outside  of  the  head  with- 
out fracture  or  depression,  while  inside,  the  bone  is  bro- 
ken. The  seven  other  specimens  illustrate  the  same  phe- 
nomena. In  this  case  we  see  craniums  in  which  bullets 
are  imbedded  and  broken.  We  see  one  where  a  conical 
bullet  split  in  two  in  entering  the  head  at  the  temple, 
one  half  going  inside,  caused  instant  death,  while  the 
other  half  struck  the  face  outside.  Here  we  see  a  minie- 
bullet  split  on  the  bones  of  the  nose.  Another  case  is  of 
an  attempted  suicide — who  died  a  natural  death.  He 
fired  a  pistol  in  his  mouth,  whose  bullet  passed  throftgh 
the  jugular  vein,  but  not  through  the  head.  It  stopped 
short,  embedded  in  the  bone,  where  it  remained  as  a  stop- 
per to  the  blood  fpom  the  perforated  artery,  and  the  man 
who  tried  to  kill  himself,  lived  seventeen  years  to  be  sorry 
for  doing  so. 

Two  specimens  in  this  collection  deny  the  assertion 
that  "when  a  man  breaks  his  neck  that  is  the  last  of 


Above  Ground 


A    WITHERED   ARM 

Skin,  flcah  and  bones  complete.       Amputated  bj  a  cannon  ihot  on  th»  battle  Held  of  Gettysburg. 


JOHN  WILKES  BOOTH. 

Being  part  of  the  Vertebra  penetrated  [A}  by 
the  bullet  of  Bonon  tVrbctt.  Stiante  freak  of  fate  that  the*, 
remaini  of  Booth  ibould  find  a  rejting  place  under  the  lame  roof, 
and  but  a  few  feet  from  the  spot  where  the  fatal  ibot  wu  find 


A    SIOUX    PAPPOOSE 

Or  Indian  infant,  found  in  a  tree  near  Fort  Laramie,  where  it  had  been  buried  (?)  according  i 


SKULL  OF  LITTLE  BEAR'S  SQUAW. 

Perforated  br  seven  bullet  holes.     Killed  in  Warming  Territory 


SKULL    OF    A    MAN 

the  head,  three  gun-»hot  fleeh  wouda. 
aim,  another  in  the  breut.  and  a  third   in  the  leg.     Seven   dari.   attrrwi 


admitted  to   tlie  liMprtal  at  Fort  Concha.  Texai  [where  h«  .ubwqu 
h»»int  trareled  abore  100 mile*  on  the  barren  plaioi  -  mottlj  on  foot 


SKULL    OF    A    SOLDIER 

Woonded  at  8pottnl.ania -iho«inC  th.  iplittint  of  a  RIO.  ball,  one 
portion  beinn  boried  deep  In  the  brain,  and  the  other  Wt.een  the  a-alp 
and  th.  skull .  H.  lirod  twintj-tbre*  dij. 


APACHE    INDIAN    AltHOW-IIEAD 

Of  «ofl  hoop-iron.    Thnt  arrowj  will  perforate  a  bone  without  cauing  IhelU 
fracture,  where  a  rifle  or  mtukit  ball  will  flatten  .  and  will  make  a  cut  u  clean 


OTJDFLIOJSITIIESJS 

FROM  THE  ARMY  MEDICAL  MUSEUM,  WASHINGTON. 


LIVING   WITH    A   BROKEN   NECK.  483 

him."  One  of  these  is  a  skull  taken  from  the  Catacombs 
in  Paris.  It  has  a  few  vertebraB  attached  to  the  neck. 
One  of  these  shows  a  distinct  dislocation  where  it  was 
broken  from  the  head,  and  where  it  had  grown  closely  to- 
gether again.  The  other  is  a  home  specimen,  which  shows 
no  less  distinctly  where  the  broken  neck  again  formed  the 
connection  with  the  head.  There  is  also  in  this  section 
of  the  museum  a  piece  of  human  cranium,  about  the  size 
of  a  silver  dollar,  cut  from  the  head  of  a  soldier  wounded 
at  Petersburgh,  Va.,  June  14, 1864.  The  following  is  the 
official  history  of  this  "  interesting  case : " 

"The  subject  was  admitted  to  Mount  Pleasant  General 
Hospital,  Washington,  D.  C.,  on  June  24,  with  the  report 
that  the  progress  of  the  case  had  been  so  far  eminently 
satisfactory.  After  admission  he  was  found  to  be  insensi- 
ble, and  a  few  hours  subsequently  convulsions  supervened 
in  rapidly  recurring  paroxysms.  Twelve  ounces  of  blood 
were  taken  from  the  temporal  artery  without  apparent 
benefit.  A  trephine  was  then  applied  to  the  seat  of  frac- 
ture, and  upon  the  removal  of  a  bottom  of  bone,  a  portion 
of  the  inner  table  was  found  slightly  depressed.  This 
was  elevated,  and  the  patient,  soon  after,  regained  con- 
sciousness. On  the  28th  of  June,  the  wound  in  the  scalp 
became  erysipelatous,  and  before  the  inflammation  sub- 
sided there  was  extensive  loss  of  substance  of  the  integu- 
ments and  pericranium  denuding  a  large  portion  of  the 
parietal  bone.  Necrosis  ensued,  and  embraced  the  whole 
thickness  of  the  bone.  In  September,  1864,  a  portion  of  the 
parietal,  three  inches  by  four,  had  become  so  much  loos- 
ened that  it  was  readily  removed.  After  this,  cicatrization 
went  on  rapidly ;  and  at  the  date  of  the  last  report,  Decem- 
ber 2, 1864,  the  wound  had  contracted  to  an  ulcer  less  than 


484  TEN   TEARS    IN    WASHINGTON. 

an  inch  in  diameter.  The  patient's  mental  faculties  were 
impaired  somewhat,  the  ward-physician  thought,  but  not 
to  a  great  extent." 

This  specimen  was  contributed  by  Assistant-Surgeon 
E.  A.  McCall,  United  States  Army.  A  colored  drawing 
was  made  representing  the  parts  prior  to  the  separation 
of  the  exfoliation,  (No.  74,  surgical  series  of  drawings, 
Surgeon  General's  office.) 

We  see  suspended  in  a  case  the  bone  of  an  arm  from 
the  shoulder  to  the  elbow.  A  musket  ball  having  shat- 
tered it,  it  was  necessary  to  take  it  out  or  amputate  the 
arm.  The  surgeon  chose  the  former.  The  bone  with  all 
its  splinters  was  removed.  The  photograph  of  its  owner 
is  set  up  under  it,  while  the  living  original  may  come  and 
look  at  it  any  moment  he  chooses,  he  being  one  of  the 
attaches  to  the  Museum.  He  says  that  he  can  use  the  in- 
jured arm  as  readily  as  the  other.  The  muscles  and  in- 
teguments have  taken  the  place  of  the  lost  bone,  and  are 
strong  enough  to  enable  him  to  lift  a  two-hundred-pounds' 
weight  without  difficulty. 

Another  case  of  great  interest  to  the  medical  profes- 
sion, is  that  of  a  soldier  of  Company  C,  Eighth  New 
Jersey  Volunteers,  who  was  wounded  in  the  battle  of  the 
Wilderness,  May  5,  1864.  The  specimen  on  exhibition 
is  a  piece  of  the  hip-bone,  about  four  or  five  inches  long. 
This  shattered  bone  was  excised,  May  27,  1864,  and  the 
patient  was  discharged  from  the  hospital,  April  17,  1865, 
perfectly  cured,  and  able  to  use  the  mutilated  limb  with- 
out its  portion  of  thigh-bone.  In  1868,  he  was  well,  could 
walk  without  a  cane,  and  was  employed  as  a  hod-carrier. 
He  now  receives  a  Government  pension  of  fifteen  dollars 
a  month. 


INDIAN  ARROWS.  485 

At  the  right  of  the  main  entrance,  stands  the  Cranio- 
logical  Cabinet.  It  contains  a  thousand  or  more  speci- 
mens of  the  cranise  of  different  human  races.  Beside 
the  skull  of  the  Caucasian,  we  see  that  of  the  African, 
each  of  the  highest  order  of  its  kind.  The  long  line 
contains  a  "  sample  "  of  nearly  all  the  typical  heads  of 
the  human  race. 

The  collection  contains  a  large  number  of  Indian  skulls 
of  opposite  tribes,  taken  from  tumuli,  and  gathered  from 
other  sources.  There  are  none  to  which  the  scientific 
man  points  with  more  interest,  than  to  the  skulls  of  the 
Flat-head  Indians.  These  are  perfectly  flat  on  the  top, 
forming  a  right  angle  with  the  forehead.  Here  is  the 
head  of  a  baby,  who  probably  died  in  the  process. 
Boards  are  tightly  bound  to  infants'  heads,  from  birth, 
till  they  cease  to  grow.  One  would  suppose  that  this 
would  lessen  the  brain-capacity.  But  as  it  can  not  grow 
in  front,  it  avenges  itself  by  pushing  far  out  on  the  sides. 
Thus  the  Flat-head  Indian's  head  is  ars  wide  as  it  is  flat, 
and  in  defiance  of  phrenology,  he  is  not  only  as  bright, 
but  brighter  in  his  wits,  than  many  of  his  neighbors. 

Here  are  Indian  arrows,  taken  from  the  dead  bodies 
of  our  soldiers  on  the  plains.  The  arrowheads  are  made 
of  barrel-hoops,  and  so  sharp,  they  can  pierce  any  skull. 
One  is  shown,  still  sticking  through  a  portion  of  the 
shoulder-blade  of  a  buffalo.  The  point  of  the  arrow  is 
outside  of  the  bone,  the  arrow-tip  having  passed  through 
the  body  of  the  buffalo,  and  through  the  bone,  opposite 
the  side  that  it  entered.  A  rifle-ball  would  be  flattened 
where  an  Indian  arrowhead  penetrates  without  hin- 
drance. The  cut  of  an  arrowhead  is  as  clear  and  clean 
as  if  made  by  the  most  acute  surgical  instrument.  The 


486  TEN   YEAKS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

fatal  force  with  which  an  arrow  is  driven  from  an  Indian 
bow,  is  illustrated  in  the  following  fact :  Here,  in  the  Mu- 
seum, is  the  piece  of  a  door  of  a  stage  which  was  attacked 
by  Comanches  near  Bellos  River,  Texas,  September  1, 
1870.  The  wood,  about  an  inch  and  a  half  thick,  is 
pierced  by  an  Indian  arrowhead,  the  point  appearing  on 
the  outside. 

Of  the  two  passengers  in  the  stage  at  the  time  of  the 
occurrence,  one  was  killed  and  the  other  escaped.  The 
stage  guard  consisted  of  three  soldiers — one  was  killed 
instantly,  another  escaped,  the  third  was  wounded.  He 
received  an  arrow  wound  in  the  head,  and  three  gunshot 
flesh-wounds,  one  in  the  arm,  another  in  the  leg  and  one 
in  the  breast.  In  this  condition  he  travelled  one  hundred 
and  sixty  miles  across  the  plains,  on  foot.  Seven  long  days 
it  took  him  to  reach  the  post-hospital  at  Fort  Concha, 
Texas.  When  admitted,  mentally,  he  was  clear  and  bright. 
But  on  September  19,  he  died. 

The  skull  of  this  unfortunate  man,  preserved  in  the 
Army  Museum,  shows  an  arrowhead  firmly  embedded  in 
the  petrous  portion  of  the  right  temporal  bone — a  wound 
in  itself,  it  would  seem,  sufficient  to  prove  instantly  fatal. 

One  of  the  pet  curiosities  of  the  Museum  is  a  Japan- 
ese manikin — ess — we  will  call  it,  as  it  is  supposed  to 
represent  the  creature  feminine.  The  heart  is  a  red  ap- 
ple and  the  liver  (very  properly)  a  yellow  one.  The 
stomach  looks  like  a  lean  pomegranate.  The  lungs  are 
represented  by  five  green  oak  leaves.  These  organs  are 
lumped  together,  the  lungs  being  below  all  the  rest.  The 
Japanese  idea  of  anatomy  seems  to  be  quite  as  muddled 
as  its  powers  of  perspective. 

A  case  near  the  front  window,  contains  three  Maori 


STRUCK    BY   A    "  STINGAREE."  487 

heads  from  New  Zealand.  They  are  all  tattooed  with  the 
black  juice  of  the  betel-nut.  Any  thing  more  hideous 
than  their  empty  eye-sockets,  their  striped  cheek  bones 
and  ghastly  white  teeth  cannot  be  imagined. 

Along  the  windows  at  the  opposite  end  of  the  great 
hall,  may  be  seen  skeletons  of  all  kinds  of  animals,  birds, 
fishes  and  reptiles.  Here  are  skeletons  of  the  horse,  the 
buffalo,  the  grizzly  bear,  the  elk,  the  walrus,  and  the  ray. 
One  of  these  last,  caught  in  James  river,  has  been  pre- 
sented to  the  Museum. 

Those  who  have  read  the  early  history  of  Virginia  may 
remember  that  it  chronicles  the  fact  that  once  when  Cap- 
tain John  Smith,  of  wonderful  memory,  was  one  day 
bathing  in  the  James  River,  he  received  a  sudden  shock, 
and  many  days  elapsed  before  he  recovered  from  it.  It 
was  supposed  that  he  was  struck  by  a  i  stingaree.' 

The  '  stingaree  '  is  a  corruption  of  the  stinging  ray — 
and  such  a  specimen  is  shown  in  the  Museum.  The  ray 
is  a  fish  of  the  cartilaginous  species,  not  having  the  ver- 
tebrated  form.  It  has  wings,  each  measuring  about  four- 
teen inches  across  the  widest  part ;  and  it  has  a  very  long 
tail,  in  which  is  implanted  a  sting,  which  resembles  in  its 
effects  a  shock  of  electricity,  and  produces  temporary 
paralysis.  The  ray  darts  in  among  a  shoal  of  fishes,  elec- 
trifies them,  and  then  proceeds  to  devour  them. 

The  microscopical  division  of  the  Museum  on  the  li- 
brary floor  is  of  great  value.  It  affords  facilities  for  the 
study  of  natural  history  and  comparative  anatomy  equal 
to  the  medical  schools  of  Paris.  This  department  con- 
tains a  series  of  photographical  publications  of  enlarged 
photographic  pictures  of  the  specimens,  mounted  on  card- 
board and  bound  in  Russia  leather.  A  set  of  this  series, 


488  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

also  a  complete  set  of  bound  photographs  of  all  the  speci- 
mens contained  in  the  surgical  department  of  the  Muse- 
um, with  a  sketch  of  the  case  attached,  has  been  pre- 
sented to  all  the  governments  and  large  public  libraries  of 
Europe.  In  return,  these  European  governments  and 
libraries  have  sent  complete  sets  of  like  publications  of 
their  own.  Several  hundred  volumes,  handsomely  bound, 
include  these  foreign  gifts  to  the  Army  Medical  Museum 
at  Washington. 

The  primary  object  of  the  Army  Medical  Museum  is 
to  illustrate  minutely  the  wounds  and  diseases  of  our  late 
war,  while  the  medical  and  surgical  histories  of  the  war, 
now  being  written  under  the  supervision  of  the  Surgeon- 
General,  will  show  the  processes  of  treatment  and  their 
results.  Dr.  J.  J.  Woodward,  assisted  by  Dr.  Otis,  both 
of  Pennsylvania,  are  charged  with  the  writing  of  this 
history.  Doctor  Woodward  is  writing  the  medical  his- 
tory, and  Doctor  Otis  the  surgical  history  of  this  import- 
ant national  report.  Five  thousand  copies  of  each  will 
be  issued  by  Congress.  The  first  volumes  of  both  histo- 
ries have  already  come  from  the  bindery  of  the  Public 
Printer  in  handsome  form.  The  first  of  the  medical  vol- 
umes is  chiefly  occupied  with  tabular  statements  of  the 
diseases  which  prevailed,  and  the  numbers  dying  of  each, 
during  the  entire  period  of  our  civil  war.  The  coming 
volumes  will  treat  of  these  diseases,  the  treatment  pur- 
sued, and  will  give  photographs  of  the  organs  affected  in 
each  disease. 

The  Museum  proper  is  divided  into  four  departments, 
Surgery,  Medicine,  Anatomy,  and  Comparative  Anatomy. 
These  are  all  placed  in  the  hall  of  the  third  story.  We 
reach  this  by  an  outer  iron  stair-case,  whose  walls  on 


PREPARING  "SPECIMENS."  489 

either  side  are  lined  with  sketches  and  plans  of  the  battle- 
fields of  Gettysburg  and  Antietam,  in  black  walnut  frames. 
Entering  the  long  hall,  we  are  confronted  at  once  by  the 
ghastly  victims  in  the  frames  opposite,  and  the  eyes  are 
quickly  withdrawn  to  glance  up  and  down  along  the  pol- 
ished glass  cases  which  line  the  walls.  Above  some  of 
these  cases  droop  the  flags  and  standards,  the  swords  and 
sabres  which  have  survived  the  war.  Models  of  ambu- 
lances, stretchers,  and  hospital  tents,  also  have  a  place  on 
the  top  of  these  cases. 

More  than  four-fifths  of  the  specimens  in  the  Museum 
have  been  presented  to  it,  or  exchanged  for  duplicate  ob- 
jects, quantities  of  which  are  stored  in  the  attic,  ready  for 
exchange.  The  Army  Medical  Museum  belongs  to  the 
nation,  and  as  its  existence  and  object  have  been  widely 
"published,  it  is  in  daily  receipt  of  new  specimens.  It  has 
become  an  object  of  personal  interest  and  pride  to  the 
medical  fraternity  of  the  country,  each  one  of  whom  is 
invited  to  become  a  contributor  to  its  pathological  treas- 
ures. In  a  late  official  report,  the  Surgeon-General  thus 
refers  to  the  subject,  which  is  of  interest  to  all  medical 
persons : 

"It  is  not  intended  to  impose  upon  medical  officers  the 
labor  of  dissecting  and  preparing  the  specimens  they 
may  contribute  to  the  Museum.  This  will  be  done  un- 
der the  superintendence  of  the  curator.  In  forwarding 
such  pathological  objects  as  compound  fractures,  bony 
specimens,  and  wet  preparations  generally,  obtained  after 
amputation,  operation,  or  cadaveric  examination,  all  un- 
necessary soft  parts  should  first  be  roughly  removed. 
Every  specimen  should  then  be  wrapped  separately  in  a 
cloth,  so  as  to  preserve  all  spiculse  and  fragments.  A 


490  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

small  block  of  wood  should  be  attached,  with  the  number 
of  the  specimen  and  the  name  of  the  medical  officer  send- 
ing it  inscribed  in  lead-pencil;  or  a  strip  of  sheet-lead, 
properly  marked  with  the  point  of  an  awl,  may  be  em- 
ployed for  this  purpose.  In  either  case,  the  inscription 
will  be  uninjured  by  the  contact  of  fluids.  The  prepara- 
tion should  be  then  immersed  in  diluted  alcohol  or  whis- 
ky, contained  'in  a  keg  or  small  cask.  When  a  sufficient 
number  of  objects  shall  have  accumulated,  the  cask  should 
be  forwarded  to  the  Army  Medical  Museum,  in  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.  The  expenses  of  expressage  will  be  defrayed  in 
Washington.  The  receipt  of  the  keg  or  package  will  be 
duly  acknowledged  by  the  curator  of  the  Museum." 

When  the  first  Army  Medical  Museum  report  was  issued, 
January  1,  1863,  the  collection  begun  in  August,  1862,^ 
numbered  over  thirteen  hundred  in  all.  Since  then  the 
collection  has  grown  to  the  following  proportions.  In 
1873  it  contains  over  sixteen  thousand  objects.  In  the 
surgical  department  alone,  there  are  over  six  thousand. 
In  the  medical  department  over  eleven  hundred.  In  the 
anatomical  department  over  nine  hundred.  In  the  de- 
partment of  comparative  anatomy  over  one  thousand. 
In  the  microscopical  department  over  six  thousand.  A 
library  and  photograph-gallery  belong  exclusively  to  the 
Museum.  The  side  rooms  and  lower  stories  are  used  as 
the  laboratories  and  work-rooms  for  preparing  and  mountr 
ing  the  specimens  for  exhibition.  The  Army  Medical  Mu- 
seum is  a  great  beginning — and  yet  only  a  beginning  of 
one  of  the  most  unique,  precious  and  important,  patho- 
logical collections  in  the  world. 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 

*'  OLD   PROBABILITIES'  "   WORKSHOP— HOW   WEATHER  CALCU- 
LATIONS ARE  MADE. 

"  Old  Probabilities  "—An  Interesting  Subject— The  Weather  Bureau— The 
Experience  of  Fifty  Centuries — Value  of  Scientific  Knowledge — Meteor- 
ological Observations — Brigadier-General  Albert  J  Meyer — His  Life  and 
Career — He  Introduces  System  and  Order — Foreseeing  the  Approach 
of  Storms— The  Fate  of  the  Metis— Quicker  than  the  Storm— The  First 
Warning  by  Telegraph — Exchanging  Reports  with  Canada — The  "  Observ- 
ing Stations  " — Protecting  the  River  Commerce — The  Signal  Corps — The 
Examinations — The  Sergeant's  Duties — The  Signal-Stations — The  Work 
of  the  Observers — Preparing  Bulletins  at  Washington — Professor  Maury's 
Account — Safeguards  Against  Mistakes — Deducing  Probabilities — Des- 
patching Bulletins — Preparing  Meteorological  Maps — Recording  Obser- 
vations— Watching  the  Storm — The  Storm  at  San  Francisco — Prophetic 
Preparations — Perfect  Arrangements — Training  the  Sergeants — General 
Meyer's  Work — "Away  up  G  Street" — The  Home  of  Old  and  Young 
"  Probabilities  "—An  Extraordinary  Mansion — The  "  Kites  and  Wind- 
mills"— Inside  the  Mansion — The  Apparatus' — "  The  Unerring  Weather- 
Man  " — "Old  Probabilities"  Himself — How  Calculations  are  Made — - 
"  Young  Probabilities  " — Interesting  Facts. 

ri  THERE  is  no  theme,  not  excepting  marriage,  birth,  and 
J-  death,  that  is  more  absorbing  than  "  the  weather." 
It  has  made  and  unmade  kingdoms,  it  has  brought  tri- 
umph in  battle,  and  terrible  defeat,  it  has  brought  woe 
and  death;  but  that  was  before  the  day  of  "Old  Proba- 
bilities," or  the  Weather  Bureau. 

It^is  your  own  fault  now,  if  your  wedding-day  is  wet 
and  gloomy,  or  if  the  rain  pours  into  the  open  grave  of 
the  best-beloved.  If  you  follow  the  weather  report,  you 


492  TEN   YEAES   IN   WASHINGTON. 

will  know  days  before  what  the  weather,  in  all  proba- 
bility, will  be,  and  the  report  seldom  fails.  Even  ten 
years  ago,  who  would  have  thought  that  he  could  so  soon 
find  in  the  newspaper  the  almost  unfailing  prophecy  of 
the  skies  of  the  coming  day!  Think  of  the  millions 
of  anxious  faces  which  have  turned  sky-ward  since  the 
earth  began  !  What  eager  and  ignorant  eyes  have  peered 
upward,  to  descry  the  portents  of  the  unseen,  yet  brood- 
ing storm.  Ignorance  has  already  given  place  to  knowl- 
edge, to  a  scientific  forecasting  of  the  elements,  to  a  fore- 
statement  of  the  conditions  of  earth  and  air. 

This  wonderful  fact,  in  its  influence,  penetrates  not 
only  to  the  finest  fibre  of  social  happiness,  but  influences 
all  the  civilizations  of  the  earth.  Although  the  changes 
of  the  atmosphere  have  seemed  the  most  apparent  of  all 
the  workings  of  nature,  and  have  been  more  closely 
watched,  and  more  constantly  commented  on  by  man- 
kind, than  all  others  taken  together,  after  the  lapse  of 
fifty  centuries,  the  desultory  observer  is  unable  to  predict 
certainly  the  weather,  of  a  single  day. 

The  value  of  accurate  scientific  knowledge  on  a  subject 
which  affects  vitally  the  agricultural  and  commercial  in- 
terests of  the  world,  as  well  as  the  physical  health  and 
spiritual  happiness  of  mankind,  cannot  be  overestimated. 

By  a  joint  resolution  of  Congress,  approved  February 
9,  1870,  the  Secretary-of-War  was  authorized  and  re- 
quired to  provide  for  taking  meteorological  observations 
at  the  military  stations  in  the  interior  of  the  continent, 
and  at  other  points  in  the  States  and  Territories  of  the 
United  States,  and  for  giving  notice  on  the  northern 
lakes,  and  on  the  sea-coast,  by  magnetic  telegraph  and 
marine  signals,  of  the  approach  and  force  of  storms. 


"  OLD    PROBABILITIES."  493 

This  special  service  was  intrusted  to  the  immediate 
supervision  and  control  of  General  Albert  J.  Meyer.  The 
following  record  of  his  services,  in  the  United  States  Ar- 
my, can  but  slightly  indicate  his  peculiar  fitness  for  the 
position  which  he  now  holds. 

Brevet  Brigadier-General  Albert  J.  Meyer,  Colonel  and 
Chief  Signal  Officer,  United  States  Army,  was  born  in 
New  York,  and  appointed  Assistant-Surgeon,  United  States 
Army,  from  that  State,  September,  1854.  He  served  on 
the  Texas  frontier,  in  the  Rio  Grande  Valley,  and  at  Fort 
Davis,  Texas,  to  1857;  on  special  duty,  signal  service,  1858 
to  1860.  He  was  appointed  Major  and  Chief  Signal  Of- 
ficer, United  States  Army,  July,  1860.  In  the  Department 
of  New  Mexico  to  May,  1861  ;  on  staff  of  General  Butler, 
Fort  Monroe,  Va.,  June,  1861;  organized  and  commanded 
Signal  Camp,  Fort  Monroe,  Va. ;  Aide-de-Camp  to  Gen- 
eral McDowell  at  first  battle  of  Bull  Run,  Va. ;  Chief 
Signal  Officer  on  staff  of  General  McClellan,  and  com- 
manded Signal  Corps,  Army  of  the  Potomac,  to  October, 
1862;  charge  of  Signal  Office,  Washington,  D.  C.,  to 
November,  1863. 

He  was  appointed  Colonel  and  Chief  Signal  Officer, 
United  States  Army,  March,  1863 ;  member  of  Central 
Board  of  Examination  for  admission  to  Signal  Corps  from 
April,  1863 ;  on  reconnaissance  of  the  Mississippi  River, 
between  Cairo,  111.,  and  Memphis,  Tenn.,  December,  1863, 
to  May,  1864 ;  Chief  Signal  Officer,  Military  Division  of 
West  Mississippi,  May,  1864 ;  Colonel  and  Chief  Signal 
Officer,  United  States  Army,  July,  1866.  He  was  brevet- 
ted  Lieutenant-Colonel,  United  States  Army,  for  gallant 
and  meritorious  services  at  the  battle  of  Hanover  Court- 
house, Va. ;  Colonel,  United  States  Army,  for  gallant 


494  TEN  YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

and  meritorious  services  at  the  battle  of  Malvern  Hill, 
Va. ;  and  Brigadier  General,  United  States  Army,  for  dis- 
tinguished services  in  organizing,  instructing,  and  com- 
manding Signal  Corps  of  the  army,  and  for  its  especial 
service  at  Altoona,  Ga.,  October  5,  1864. 

General  Meyer  graduated  at  Geneva  College,  New 
York,  1847,  A.  B.  and  A.  M.,  and  took  the  degree  of 
M.  D.,  at  the  University  of  BuiFalo,  in  1851.  He  is  the 
author  of  a  manual  of  signals  for  the  United  States  Army 
and  Navy. 

Upon  his  appointment  as  Chief  of  the  Signal  Service, 
of  the  United  States  Army,  General  Meyer  at  once -in- 
augurated a  systematic  plan;  he  established  stations  at 
all  points,  decided  by  competent  authorities  to  be  import- 
ant and  practicable.  These  he  provided  with  plain,  effi- 
cient instruments,  and  keen,  trained  observers,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  report  three  times  daily,  at  intervals  of 
eight  hours.  These  reports,  made  in  abbreviated  cypher, 
were  conveyed  by  telegraph.  With  the  delivery  of  the 
reports  at  Washington,  and  at  other  important  posts  to 
which  they  were  sent,  began  the  practical  workings  of  the 
"  Weather  Bureau  "  in  the  Signal  Service  of  the  United 
States.  January  15,  1871,  the  stations  on  the  Atlantic 
Coast,  with  others,  were  added  to  the  list  reporting. 

One  of  the  most  important  practical  functions  of  the 
Bureau,  is  that  of  giving  warning  of  approaching  storms 
to  vessels  at  the  ports  on  the  lakes.  The  unfortunate 
Metis  received  such  a  warning  before  it  started  on  its 
last  disastrous  voyage.  It  gave  no  heed,  and  in  conse- 
quence went  to  wreck,  and  scattered  its  victims  thick  as 
snow-flakes  on  the  engulfing  waters  of  the  Sound.  The 
velocity  of  a  storm  being  accurately  observed  at  any  one 


THE    SIGNAL-SERVICE    SYSTEM.  495 

of  the  stations,  it  was  easy  to  predict  with  accuracy  the 
time  of  its  arrival  at  any  given  point  lying  in  its  path ; 
while  the  lightning  wing  of  the  telegraph  bore  this  knowl- 
edge instantaneously  to  the  threatened  point. 

The  first  telegraphic  warning  given  thus  was  sent  and 
bulletined  at  the  several  ports  along  the  lakes,  November 
8,  1870. 

The  system  was  soon  carried  still  nearer  perfection  by 
the  adoption  of  cautionary  signals.  The  first  of  these 
was  displayed  at  Oswego,  N.  Y.,  October  26, 1871.  Near 
this  time,  without  any  cost  to  the  United  States,  the  Bu- 
reaji  obtained  a  considerable  extension  to  its  area  of  ob- 
servation. 

In  time  the  Canadian  Government  made  a  considerable 
appropriation  to  establish  a  similar  system  in  the  Domin- 
ion. Professor  Kingston,  chief  of  the  Meteorological 
Bureau  of  Canada,  requested  of  General  Meyer  an  ex- 
change of  reports.  Arrangements  for  such  an  exchange 
were  duly  made,  and  the  first  reports  from  Toronto 
were  forwarded  to  the  United  States,  November  13,  1871. 
Keports  were  also  exchanged  with  the  director  of  the 
Observatory  at  Montreal.  The  Canadian  reports  are 
made  synchronously  with  those  of  the  United  States  and 
in  the  same  cypher.  The  stations  of  the  Dominion  are 
van-posts  to  the  United  States,  giving  warning  of  storms 
moving  downward  from  the  north. 

By  the  Act  of  Congress,  approved  June  10, 1872,  it  was 
made  the  duty  of  the  Secretary-of-War  to  provide  such 
stations,  signals  and  reports  as  might  be  found  necessary 
for  the  benefit  of  the  commercial  and  agricultural  inter- 
ests throughout  the  country.  In  response  to  an  invita- 
tion made  by  the  Chief  Signal  Officer,  eighty-nine  agri- 


496  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

cultural  societies  and  thirty-eight  boards  of  trade  and 
chambers  of  commerce  have  appointed  meteorological 
committees  to  cooperate  and  correspond  with  the  Signal 
Bureau.  The  observing  stations  now  number  eighty-five. 
New  stations  are  constantly  being  added.  The  station  at 
Mount  Washington  is  six  thousand  two  hundred  and 
ninety  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Other  mountain- 
stations  are  to  be  established  for  the  purpose  of  making 
observations  upon  the  varying  meteorological  phenomena 
of  different  altitudes.  These  observations  are  sometimes 
made  in  a  balloon. 

To  obtain  reports  of  observations  at  sea,  to  some  ex- 
tent, the  cooperation  of  ship-captains  and  of  officers  at 
the  head  of  exploring  expeditions  has  been  obtained.  A 
constant  interchange  of  correspondence  is  also  maintained 
with  foreign  meteorological  societies.  Five  hundred  tri- 
daily  reports  are  constantly  sent  abroad.  The  same  ex- 
change with  foreign  governments  will  be  arranged  as 
soon  as  possible. 

Besides  weather-reports,  a  system  of  observation  on 
the  changes  in  the  depth  of  waters  in  the  principal  West- 
ern rivers  is  already  established.  Great  pains  are  taken 
with  the  reports  on  this  subject,  which  are  made  to  pro- 
tect the  river  commerce  from  ice  and  freshets,  and  the 
lower  river  levees  from  breakage  and  overflow.  The  ob- 
servations on  the  weather  embrace  those  on  atmospheric 
pressure,  temperature,  humidity  of  the  air,  force,  direc- 
tion and  velocity  of  the  wind,  and  the  amount  of  rain-fall. 
For  these  purposes  each  station  is  carefully  provided  with 
appropriate  instruments  by  the  central  office. 

The  Signal  Corps  is  composed  of  a  commanding  officer 
with  the  rank  of  brigadier-general,  several  commissioned 


TRAINING  FOR   THE    SERVICE.  497 

officers,  and  a  certain  number  of  sergeants  and  enlisted 
men.  The  sergeants  are  required  to  be  proficient  in 
3pelling,  the  ground-rules  of  arithmetic,  including  deci- 
mal fractions,  and  the  geography  of  the  United  States, 
and  are  required  to  write  a  legible  hand.  They  are  ex- 
amined in  these  branches  before  being  admitted  into  the 
service.  They  are  also  subjected  to  a  medical  examina- 
tion, and  only  men  of  sound  physical  condition  are  ac- 
cepted. They  are  regularly  enlisted  into  the  military 
service  of  the  United  States,  and  are  subject  to  the  regu- 
lations for  the  government  of  the  army. 

Immediately  upon  admission  to  the  corps,  each  sergeant 
is  sent  to  Fort  Whipple,  in  Virginia,  opposite  Washington, 
where  he  is  taught  the  duties  of  his  profession,  which  are 
"chiefly  those  pertaining  to  the  observation,  record  and 
proper  publication  and  report,  at  such  times  as  may  be 
required,  of  the  state  of  the  barometer,  thermometer, 
hygrometer,  and  rain-gauge,  or  other  instruments,  and 
the  report  by  telegraph  or  signal,  at  such  times  as  indica- 
ted, and  to  such  places  as  may  be  designated  by  the  chief 
signal  officer,  of  the  observations  as  made,  or  such  other 
information  as  may  be  required."  The  text-books  used 
in  the  school  at  Fort  Whipple,  are  Loomis's  "Text  Book 
of  Meteorology,"  Buchan's  "  Hand  Book  of  Meteorology," 
Pape's  "Practical  Telegraphy,"  and  the  "Manual  of  Sig- 
nals for  the  United  States  Army."  Instruction  in  the  use 
of  the  instruments  is  also  given,  and  the  sergeant  is  taught 
to  operate  the  telegraph.  He  is  required  to  make  daily 
recitations,  and  when  he  is  considered  prepared,  by  his 
instructor,  he  is  ordered  before  an  examining  board,  and 
is  subjected  to  a  rigid  examination.  If  he  is  found  prop- 
erly qualified,  he  is  assigned  to  a  signal  station  in  some 


498  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

part  of  the  country,  and  is  allowed  an  enlisted  man  to  as- 
sist him  in  his  duties. 

There  are  eighty-five  signal  stations,  located  in  various 
parts  of  the  Union,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and 
from  British  America  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Each  of 
these  is  supplied  with  a  full  set  of  the  instruments  neces- 
sary for  ascertaining  the  condition  of  the  weather,  etc., 
and  is  in  charge  of  an  observer-sergeant,  who  is  required 
to  make  observations  three  times  a  day,  by  means  of  his 
instruments,  which  are  adjusted  to  a  standard  at  Washing- 
ton. These  observations  are  made  at  8  A.  M.,  at  4  p.  M., 
and  at  midnight.  Each  post  of  observation  is  furnished 
with  a  clock  which  is  regulated  by  the  standard  of  Wash- 
ington time,  so  that  the  observations  are  taken  precisely 
at  the  same  moment  all  over  the  United  States. 

The  result  of  each  observation  is  immediately  tele- 
graphed to  the  Signal  Office  at  Washington,  the  Govern- 
ment having  made  arrangements  with  the  telegraph  com- 
panies to  secure  the  instant  transmission  of  these  mes- 
sages. The  reports  are  limited  to  a  fixed  number  of  words, 
and  the  time  of  their  transmission  to  a  fixed  number  of 
seconds. 

The  signal  stations,  as  at  present  located  throughout 
the  country,  have  been  chosen  or  located  at  points  from 
which  reports  of  observations  will  be  most  useful  as 
indicating  the  general  barometric  pressure,  or  the  ap- 
proach and  force  of  storms,  and  from  which  storm  warn- 
ings, as  the  atmospheric  indications  arise,  may  be  for- 
warded, with  greatest  dispatch,  to  imperilled  ports. 

The  work  of  the  observers  at  the  stations  is  simple. 
It  is  limited  to  a  reading  of  their  instruments  at  stated 
times,  the  transmission  to  Washington  of  the  results  of 


FORECASTING  THE  WEATHER.          499 

these  observations,  and  of  information  of  any  meteoro- 
logical facts  existing  at  the  station,  when  their  tri-daily 
report  is  telegraphed  to  Washington.  The  work  of  the 
officers  on  duty  at  the  Signal  Office  in  "Washington,  is  of 
a  higher  character,  and  demands  of  them  the  highest  skill 
and  perfect  accuracy.  The  reports  from  the  various  sta- 
tions are  read  and  recorded  as  they  come  in,  and  from 
them,  the  officer  charged  with  this  duty  prepares  a  state- 
ment of  the  condition  of  the  weather  during  the  past 
twenty-four  hours,  and  indicates  the  changes  most  likely 
to  occur  within  the  next  twenty-four  hours.  These  state- 
ments are  prepared  shortly  after  midnight,  and  are  at 
once  telegraphed  to  the  various  cities  and  important  ports 
of  the  Union,  in  time  for  their  publication  in  the  news- 
papers the  next  morning. 

Professor  Maury,  of  the  Signal  Office,  thus  sums  up 
the  working  of  the  service  : 

"  Each  observer  at  the  station  writes  his  report  on  manifold 
paper.  One  copy  lie  preserves,  another  he  gives  to  the  tele- 
graph-operator, who  telegraphs  the  contents  to  Washington. 
The  preserved  copy  is  a  voucher  for  the  report  actually  sent  by 
the  observer ;  and,  if  the  operator  is  careless,  and  makes  a  mis- 
take, he  cannot  lay  the  blame  on  the  observer,  who  has  a  copy 
of  his  report,  which  must  be  a  fac-simfte  of  the  one  he  has 
handed  to  the  operator.  The  preserved  copy  is  afterward  for- 
warded by  the  Observer-Sergeant  to  the  office  in  Washington, 
where  it  is  filed,  and  finally  bound  up  in  a  volume  for  future 
reference. 

"  When  all  the  reports  from  the  various  stations  have  been 
received,  they  are  tabulated  and  handed  to  the  officer,  (Pro- 
fessor Abbe,)  whose  duty  it  is  to  write  out  the  synopsis  and  de- 
duce the  *  probabilities,'  which  in  a  few  minutes  are  to  be  tele- 
graphed to  the  press  all  over  the  country.  This  is  a  work  of 


500  TEN  TEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

thirty  minutes.  The  bulletin  of  '  probabilities,'  which  at  pres- 
ent is  all  that  is  undertaken,  is  made  out  thrice  daily,  in  the 
forenoon,  afternoon,  and  after  the  midnight  reports  have  been 
received,  inspected,  and  studied  out  by  the  accomplished  gentle- 
man and  able  meteorologist,  who  is  at  the  head  of  this  work. 
The  '  probabilities '  for  the  weather  for  the  ensuing  day,  so  soon 
as  written  out  by  the  Professor,  are  immediately  telegraphed  to 
all  newspapers  in  the  country  who  are  willing  to  publish  them 
for  the  benefit  of  their  readers." 

Copies  of  the  telegrams  of  "  Probabilities  "  are  also  in- 
stantly sent  to  all  boards  of  trade,  chambers  of  commerce, 
merchants'  exchanges,  scientific  societies,  etc.,  and  to  con- 
spicuous places,  especially  sea-ports,  all  over  the  country. 

While  the  professor  is  preparing  his  bulletins  from  the 
reports  just  furnished  him  by  telegraph,  the  sergeants 
are  preparing  maps  which  shall  show,  by  arrows  and  num- 
bers, exactly  what  was  the  meteorologic  condition  of  the 
whole  country  when  the  last  reports  were  sent  in.  These 
maps  are  printed  in  quantities,  and  give  all  the  signal 
stations.  A  dozen  copies  are  laid  on  the  table  with  sheets 
of  carbon  paper  between  them,  and  arrow-stamps  strike 
in  them  (by  the  manifold  process)  the  direction  of  the 
window  at  each  station.  The  other  observations  as  to 
temperature,  barometric  pressure,  etc.,  etc.,  are  also  in 
the  same  way  put  on  them.  These  maps  are  displayed 
at  various  conspicuous  points  in  Washington,  e.  g.,  at  the 
War  Department,  Capitol,  Observatory,  Smithsonian  In- 
stitute, and  the  office  of  the  chief  signal-officer.  They 
serve  also  as  perfect  records  of  the  weather  for  the  day 
and  hour  indicated  on  them,  and  are  bound  up  in  a  book 
for  future  use. 

Every  report  and  paper  that  reaches  the  Signal  Office 


SIGNALING   THE    COMING   STORM.  501 

is  carefully  preserved  on  a  file,  so  that,  at  the  end  of  each 
year,  the  office  possesses  a  complete  history  of  the  mete-, 
orology  of  every  day  in  the  year,  or  nearly  50,000  observ- 
ations, besides  the  countless  and  continuous  records  from 
all  of  its  self-registering  instruments. 

When  momentous  storms  are  moving,  observers  send 
extra  telegrams,  which  are  dispatched,  received,  acted 
upon,  filed,  etc.,  precisely  as  are  the  tri-daily  reports. 
One  invaluable  feature  of  the  system,  as  now  organized 
by  General  Meyer,  is  that  the  phenomena  of  any  particular 
storm  are  not  studied  some  days  or  weeks  after  the  occur- 
rence, but  while  the  occurrence  is  fresh  in  mind.  To 
the  study  of  every  such  storm,  and  of  all  the  "  probabil- 
ities "  issued  from  the  office,  the  chief  signal-officer  gives 
his  personal  and  unremitting  attention.  As  the  observa- 
tions are  made  at  so  many  stations,  and  forwarded  every 
eight  hours,  or  oftener,  by  special  telegram  from  all 
quarters  of  'the  country,  the  movements  and  behavior  of 
every  decided  storm  can  be  precisely  noted;  and  the  ter- 
rible meteor  can  be  tracked  and  "  raced  down  "  in  a  few 
hours  or  minutes. 

An  instance  of  this  occurred  on  the  22d  of  February, 
1871,  just  after  the  great  storm  which  had  fallen  upon 
San  Francisco.  While  it  was  still  revolving  round  that 
city,  its  probable  arrival  at  Corinne,  Utah,  was  telegraphed 
there,  and  also  at  Cheyenne.  Thousands  of  miles  from 
its  roar,  the  officers  at  the  Signal  Office  in  Washington 
indicated  its  track,  velocity,  and  force.  In  twenty-four 
hours,  as  they  had  fore-warned  Cheyenne  and  Omaha,  it 
reached  those  cities.  Chicago  was  warned  twenty-four 
hours  before  it  came.  It  arrived  there  with  great  vio- 
lence, unroofing  houses  and  causing  much  destruction. 


502  TEN   TEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

Its  course  was  telegraphed  to  Cleveland  and  Buffalo,  both 
of  which  places,  a  day  after,  it  duly  visited.  The  Presi- 
dent of  the  Pacific  Railroad  has  not  more  perfectly  under 
his  eye  and  control  the  train  that  left  San  Francisco,  to- 
day, than  General  Meyer  had  the  storm  just  described. 

While  the  observers  now  in  the  field  are  perfecting 
themselves  in  then*  work,  the  chief  signal-officer  is  train- 
ing other  sergeants  at  the  camp  of  instruction  (Fort 
Whipple,  Virginia),  who  will  go  forth  hereafter  as  valued 
auxiliaries.  It  has  been  fully  demonstrated  by  the  signal- 
officer  that  the  army  of.  the  United  States  is  the  best  me- 
dium through  which  to  conduct  most  efficiently  and  eco- 
nomically the  operations  of  the  Storm  Signal-Service. 
Through  the  army  organization  the  vast  system  of  tele- 
graphy for  meteorological  purposes  can  be,  and  is  now 
being  most  successfully  handled.  "  Whatever  else  Gene- 
ral Meyer  has  not  done,"  says  the  New  York  World,  "  he 
has  demonstrated  that  there  can  be,  and  now  is,  a  perfect 
net-work  of  telegraphic  communication  extending  over 
the  whole  country,  working  in  perfect  order,  by  the  signal- 
men, and  capable  of  furnishing  almost  instantaneous 
messages  from  every  point  to  the  central  office  at  Wash- 
ington. 

Away  up  on  G  street  we  see  the  scientific  home  of  both 
old  and  young  "  Probabilities."  We  see  it  from  afar,  for 
its  high  Mansard  seems  to  be  stuck  full  of  boys'  kites  and 
wind-mills,  playing  and  flying  with  the  winds.  It  looks 
like  a  gigantic  play-house.  Any  mortal,  scientific  or 
otherwise,  would  pause  before  this  ancient  house  with  an 
infantile  roof,  and  wonder  what  child  of  larger  growth 
amused  himself  playing  with  all  the  vanes  and  anemome- 
ters on  its  roof.  It  is  painted  a  pearly  drab.  Fresh  and 


WORKSHOP.  503 

fair,  it  has  the  effect  of  a  youthful  wig  on  an  old  man's 
head,  or  a  girl's  spring  hat  perched  upon  the  head  of  a 
wintry  old  lady.  Inside,  the  house  looks  less  like  a  Skim- 
pole  in  brick,  and  really  takes  on  a  cheerfully  serious  air. 

On  the  first  floor,  we  find  two  large  offices,  and  a  cozy 
little  library,  which  stows  away  one  thousand  books,  or 
more,  on  Meteorology,  and  its  kindred  themes.  In  its 
eastern  hall,  hang  three  great  weather-maps,  on  which 
the  state  and  changes  of  the  weather  at  all  the  stations, 
for  the  past  twenty-four  hours,  are  indicated  by  estab- 
lished symbols.  The  second  and  third  stories  are  occupied 
by  the  telegraphic  corps.  To  this  the  station-work  proper 
is  assigned.  In  one  room  is  the  telegraphic  apparatus, 
connecting  with  the  many  lines  over  which  weather-re- 
ports are  received  from  all  over  the  country.  After  trans- 
lation from  the  cypher  into  every-day  speech,  the  reports 
are  combined,  and  the  weather-bulletin  prepared.  On 
this  floor,  also,  the  weekly  mail-reports,  from  the  widely- 
scattered  stations,  are  received,  examined,  corrected,  and 
filed  for  future  use.  Here,  tucked  away  in  a  little  room, 
we  find  "Acting  Probabilities  " — Professor  Abbe,  the  unerr- 
ing "  weather-man,"  who  makes  ready  the  synopsis  each 
day  prepared  for  the  Associate  Press  Agents,  Postmas- 
ters, etc. 

We  are  sure,  also,  somewhere,  to  come  in  contact  with 
"  Old  Probabilities  "  himself,  supervising  all.  Like  Pro- 
fessor Abbe,  strange  to  say,  he  is  a  young  man.  General 
Meyer  looks  soldierly,  and  trig.  He  has  fair  face  and 
hair,  closely-cut  whiskers,  a  rather  small  head,  and  a  pair 
of  inquiring,  wise-looking  eyes.  The  entire  top  floor  is 
devoted  to  "  local  observations,  and  the  gentlemen  who 
play  with  the  wind-mills  and  high-flying  kites,  upon  the 


504  TEN   YEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

roof."  Among  the  instruments  used  here,  are  Hough's 
barograph,  a  self -registering  tide  gauge ;  Addie's  London 
barometer,  which  is  acknowledged  as  the  standard  barom- 
eter ;  Gibbon's  electric  self-recording  anemometer  and 
anemoscope,  the  inventions  of  Lieutenant  Gibbon,  of  the 
Signal-Service.  The  working  force  of  the  office  is  di- 
vided into  three  reliefs,  each  of  which  is  on  duty  eight 
hours  out  of  the  twenty-four. 

Any  night,  one  sitting  by  this  window,  at  a  late  hour, 
may  see  a  slender  youth  shooting  past  toward  the  Signal- 
Service  Bureau.  This  is  "  Young  Probabilities,"  and  he 
is  dressed  in  white.  He  is  going  to  forecast  the  midnight 
portents  for  the  next  day. 

The  positive  advantage  of  the  midnight  probabilities  is 
that  they  relate  to  the  weather  of  the  coming  day,  and 
appear  at  the  breakfast  table  to  tell  Dick  and  Dolly  what, 
and  what  not  to  do.  The  number  of  weather-maps  issued 
daily  from  the  central  office  is  600 ;  from  St.  Louis  200 ; 
from  New  York  200 ;  from  Philadelphia,  Chicago  and  Cin- 
cinnati 100  each,  making  a  daily  issue  of  1,300.  All  of 
these  are  lithographed  and  printed  at  the  central  office. 

"  During  the  year  1872,  16,064  weather  bulletins  and 
107,888  maps  were  issued  from  the  office,  and  2,920  re- 
ports furnished  to  the  press.  The  work  of  the  office  has 
been  recently  extended  by  the  publication  of  the  proba- 
bilities based  upon  the  midnight  reports,  which  are  widely 
distributed  through  the  joint  agency  of  the  Signal  Bureau 
and  the  Post-Office  Department.  Four  hundred  copies 
are  issued  from  the  Washington  office,  1,000  from  New 
York,  1,500  from  Cincinnati,  800  from  Detroit,  1,500  from 
ChiQago,  and  1,000  from  St.  Louis,  and  it  is  expected  that 
the  number  will  be  still  further  increased  during  the  year. 


"  PKOBABILITIES  "  AND  "  PHYSIC."  505 

The  printed  copies  are  sent  by  mail  to  each  post-office 
within  a  radius  of  one  hundred  miles  of  the  several  points 
of  distribution,  to  which  the  matter  is  telegraphed  from 
the  central  office." 

"  The  practical  value  of  the  observations  on  our  west- 
ern rivers  is  strikingly  illustrated  by  the  report  of  the 
observer  at  Memphis,  Tenn.,  who  states  that  captains  and 
pilots  of  boats  generally  decide  by  the  reports  of  the  Sig- 
nal Bureau,  on  the  board  on  the  levee  at  that  port,  whether 
the  depth  of  the  water  above  is  sufficient  to  permit  them 
to  ascend  the  upper  Mississippi  or  the  Ohio.  Before  these 
reports  were  published,  boats  arriving  during  the  night 
lost  from  six  to  ten  hours  in  waiting  for  the  telegraphic 
reports  in  the  morning  papers. 

"A  curious  illustration  of  the  legal  value  of  the  reports 
is  furnished  by  the  observer  at  Shreveport,  La.,  who  was 
summoned  as  a  witness  in  a  murder  case,  as  to  the  condi- 
tion of  the  river  and  the  direction  of  the  wind  at  the  tune 
of  the  supposed  murder.  These  circumstances  formed  an 
essential  part  of  the  proof  in  the  case. 

"  Perhaps  few  people  would  have  supposed  that  the  re- 
ports of  the  Bureau  could  have  any  relation  to  the  prac- 
tice of  medicine,  yet  it  is  said  to  be  a  fact  that  many  in- 
telligent physicians  avail  themselves  of  the  records  of  the 
stations  in  recommending  to  their  patient  an  equable  and 
agreeable  climate.  An  observer  at  Indianapolis  reports 
that  several  are  accustomed  to  note  the  readings  of  the 
barometer  every  morning  and  evening,  and  one  of  them 
assured  him  that  he  modified  his  prescriptions  accord- 
ing to  barometric  changes,  believing  that  such  changes 
have  a  direct  effect  upon  the  condition  of  his  patients. 

"Among  the  most  important  of  the  advantages  connected 


506  TEN   YEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

with  operations  of  the  Weather  Bureau  are  those  arising 
from  the  continuous  registering  of  atmospheric  condi- 
tions, which  will  enable  the  scientific  inquirer  to  deter- 
mine, from  the  records  of  the  office,  the  degree  of  temper- 
ature, barometric  pressure,  moisture  of  the  air,  the  amount 
of  rainfalls,  the  direction  of  the  wind  at  various  points  for 
long  periods  of  time.  Having  these  data  for  various  sec- 
tions, agriculturists,  microscopists,  and  mycologists  will 
be  enabled  to  determine  in  advance  the  probabilities  as  to 
the  prevalence  of  particular  classes  of  fungi  in  any  district, 
and  thus  to  indicate  the  adaptation  of  such  districts  for  the 
cultivation  of  the  grains,  vegetables,  or  fruits  which  are 
liable  to  be  affected  by  fungoid  diseases. 

"The  signal  service  is  not  without  its  humorous  side,  an 
instance  of  which  is  furnished  by  the  observer  at  Fort 
Gibson,  Indian  Territory.  The  establishment  of  the  sta- 
tion at  that  point,  early  last  spring,  chanced  to  be  followed 
by  a  long-continued  period  of  unusually  wet  and  stormy 
weather.  This  the  Indians  attributed  to  the  observer, 
whom  some  person  of  waggish  propensities  had  repre- 
sented to  them  as  the  man  that  regulated  the  weather. 
After  bearing  their  supposed  persecution  with  exemplary 
fortitude  for  some  weeks,  their  patience  finally  gave  way, 
and  they  held  an  indignation  meeting,  at  which  it  was  se- 
riously proposed  to  tear  down  the  station.  It  was  ulti- 
mately determined,  however,  to  consult  their  agent ;  and 
upon  his  representing  to  them  the  true  state  of  affairs, 
they  reconciled  themselves  to  the  '  weather- witch,'  and 
wisely  resolved  to  wait  peacefully  for  better  times.'* 


CHAPTER  XLV. 

THE    NAVY    DEPARTMENT— THE    UNITED    STATES    OB- 
SERVATORY—THE STATE  DEPARTMENT. 

Primitive  Arrangements — The  Navy  in  Early  Days — The  Department  of 
the  Navy  Established— The  Secretary's  Office— The  Navy- Yards  and 
Docks — The  Bureau  of  Construction — The  Bureau  of  Provisions  and 
Clothing — Equipment  of  Vessels — Bureau  of  Ordnance  and  Hydrog- 
raphy— The  Naval  Observatory — The  Bureau  of  Medicine — Interesting 
Statistics— The  Navy  Seventy  Years  Ago — The  "  Day  of  Small  Things  " 
— Instructions  of  the  Great  Napoleon — Keeping  Pace  with  England — 
The  Glories  of  Foote,  Ferry,  Porter  and  Farragut — Scene  from  the  Ob- 
servatory— Peeping  Through  the  Telescope — The  Mountains  in  the 
Moon — The  Largest  Telescope  in  the  World — Making  Mathematical 
Notes — A  Passion  for  Star-gazing — Casting  Horoscopes — Gazing  for 
Pastime — "For  the  Sake  of  Science  " — The  Chronometers  of  the  Gov- 
ernment— Comparing  Notes — The  Test  of  Time — Chronometers  on 
Trial— The  Wind  and  Current  Charts— The  Good  Deeds  of  Lieutenant 
Maury — "  The  Habits  of  the  Whale  " — The  Equatorial — A  Self-acting 
Telescope — The  Transit  Instrument — The  Great  Astronomical  Clock — 
Telling  Time  by  Telegraph— Hearing  the  Clock  Tick  Miles  Away— 
The  Transit  of  Venus — Great  Preparations — A  Trifle  of  Half-a-Million 
of  Miles — The  Department  of  Foreign  Affairs — The  Secretary  of  State 
— A  Little  Secret  Suggestion — The  Diplomatic  Bureau — The  Consular 
Bureau — The  Disbursing- Agent — The  Translator — The  Clerk-of- Ap- 
pointments —  Clerk-of-the-Rolls  —  The  Clerk-of- Authentications  —  Par- 
dons and  Passports — The  Superintendent  of  Statistics. 

THE  first  intention  of  the  fathers  of  the  American 
Republic  was  to  provide  for  a  chief  clerk,  under 
whose  direction  contracts  might  be  made  for  munitions 
of  war,  and   the  inspection   of  provisions  necessary  for 
carrying  on  war  by  land  or  sea. 


508  TEN   YEAES   IN   WASHINGTON. 

As  the  maritime  warfare  of  the  United  States  increased 
in  the  brilliancy  of  its  victories,  the  necessity  for  a  sepa- 
rate organization  to  control  its  officers,  and  to  provide  for 
the  feeding,  equipment,  and  payment  of  its  sea-faring 
warriors  gradually  became  apparent ;  but  it  was  not  until 
the  thirtieth  day  of  April,  1798,  that  Congress  was  suffi- 
ciently apprised  of  this  necessity  to  pass  and  secure  the 
approval  of  an  "  Act  to  establish  an  Executive  Depart- 
ment, to  be  denominated  the  Department  of  the  Navy," 
and  on  the  twenty-second  day  of  June  of  the  same  year 
an  Act  was  passed  granting  the  franking  privilege  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

Subsequent  legislation  has  dealt  more  with  the  morale 
of  the  navy  than  with  the  functions  of  the  department ; 
reference  to  various  other  Acts  is  therefore  omitted. 

As  organized  in  1860,  the  department  consists  of  the 
following  officials  :  The  Secretary ;  Chief-Clerk  ;  Bureau 
of  Navy-yards  and  Docks ;  Bureau  of  Provisions  and 
Clothing  ;  Bureau  of  Ordnance  and  Hydrography  ;  and 
the  Bureau  of  Medicine  and  Surgery. 

The  division  of  labor  is  as  follows : 

Secretary's  Office  :  The  Secretary  has  charge  of  every- 
thing connected  with  the  naval  establishment,  and  the 
execution  of  all  laws  relating  thereto  is  intrusted  to  him, 
under  the  general  direction  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  who,  by  the  Constitution,  is  Commander-in-chief 
of  the  Army  and  Navy.  All  instructions  to  commanders 
of  squadrons  and  commanders  of  vessels,  all  orders  of 
officers,  commissions  of  officers,  both  in  the  navy  and 
marine  corps,  appointments  of  commissioned  and  warrant- 
officers,  orders  for  the  enlistment  and  discharge  of  sea- 
men, emanate  from  the  Secretary's  office.  All  the  duties 


THE    NAVY   DEPARTMENT.  509 

of  the  different  Bureaus  are  performed  under  the  au- 
thority of  the  Secretary,  and  their  orders  are  considered 
as  emanating  from  him.  The  general  superintendence 
of  the  marine  corps  forms  also  a  part  of  the  duties  of  the 
Secretary,  and  all  the  orders  of  the  commandant  of  that 
corps  should  be  approved  by  him. 

Bureau  of  Navy-yards  and  Docks :  Chief-of-the-Bu- 
reau,  four  clerks,  one  civil-engineer  and  one  draughtsman. 
All  the  navy-yards,  docks  and  wharves,  buildings  and 
machinery  in  navy*-yards,  and  everything  immediately 
connected  with  them,  are  under  the  superintendence  of 
this  Bureau.  It  is  also  charged  with  the  management  of 
the  Naval  Asylum. 

Bureau  of  Construction,  Equipment,  and  Repair: 
Chief-of-the  Bureau,  eight  clerks,  and  one  draughtsman. 
The  office  of  the  Engineer-in-chief  of  the  Navy,  who  is 
assisted  by  three  assistant-engineers,  is  attached  to  this 
Bureau.  This  Bureau  has  charge  of  the  building  and  re- 
pairs of  all  vessels-of-war,  purchase  of  materials,  and  the 
providing  of  all  vessels  with  their  equipments,  as  sails, 
anchors,  water-tanks,  etc.  The  Engineer-in-chief  super- 
intends the  construction  of  all  marine  steam-engines  for 
the  navy,  and,  with  the  approval  of  the  Secretary,  de- 
cides upon  plans  for  their  construction. 

Bureau  of  Provisions  and  Clothing:  Chief-of-Bureau 
and  four  clerks.  All  provisions  for  the  use  of  the  navy, 
and  clothing,  together  with  the  making  of  contracts  for 
furnishing  the  same,  come  under  the  charge  of  this  Bu- 
reau. 

Bureau  of  Ordnance  and  Hydrography :  Chief-of-Bu- 
reau, four  clerks,  and  one  draughtsman.  This  Bureau 
has  charge  of  all  ordnance  and  ordnance  stores,  the  man- 


510  TEN  TEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

ufacture  or  purchase  of  cannon,  guns,  powder,  shot,  shells, 
etc.,  and  the  equipment  of  vessels-of-war,  with  every- 
thing connected  therewith.  It  also  provides  them  with 
maps,  charts,  chronometers,  barometers,  etc.,  together, 
with  such  books  as  are  furnished  to  ships-of-war.  The 
United  States  Naval  Observatory  and  Hydrographical 
Office  at  Washington,  and  the  Naval  Academy  at  Annap- 
olis, are  also  under  the  general  superintendence  of  the 
Chief  of  this  Bureau. 

Bureau  of  Medicine  and  Surgery :  Chief-of-Bureau,  one 
Passed-Assistant-Surgeon  United  States  Navy,  and  two 
clerks.  Everything  relating  to  medicines  and  medical 
stores,  treatment  of  sick  and  wounded,  and  management 
of  hospitals,  comes  within  the  superintendence  of  this 
Bureau. 

The  following  statistics  may  be  interesting  to  some  of 
our  readers :  In  1806,  the  number  of  seamen  authorized 
by  law  was  925,  to  which  number  3,600  were  added  in 
1809.  In  1812,  Congress  authorized  the  President  to 
employ  (as  many  as  would  be  necessary  to  equip  the  ves- 
sels to  be  put  in  service,  and  to  build  as  many  vessels  for 
the  lakes  as  the  public  service  required.  In  January, 
1814,  there  were  in  actual  service  seven  frigates,  two  cor- 
vettes, seven  sloops-of-war,  two  block-ships,  four  brigs, 
and  three  schooners,  for  sea,  besides  the  several  lake- 
squadrons,  gunboats,  and  harbor-barges,  three  ships-of-the- 
line,  and  three  frigates  on  the  stocks.  The  whole  num- 
ber of  men  and  officers  employed  was  13,339,  of  which 
3,729  were  able  seamen,  and  6,721  ordinary.  The  marine 
corps,  as  enlarged  in  1814,  was  2,700  men  and  officers. 
The  commissioned  naval  officers  combatant  were  22  cap- 
tains, 18  commanders,  107  lieutenants,  450  midshipmen. 


THE   UNITED    STATES    OBSERVATOKY.  511 

In  1814,  Secretary  Jones  reported  to  the  Senate  that 
there  were  three  74-gun  and  three  44-gun  ships  building, 
six  new  sloops-of-war  built,  twenty  barges  and  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  gun-boats  employed  in  the  Atlantic 
waters,  thirty-three  vessels  of  all  sizes  for  sea,  afloat  or 
building,  and  thirty-one  on  the  lakes.  Even  in  1813, 
the  energy  of  this  department  had  led  the  first  Napo- 
leon to  issue  the  following  instructions  to  his  Minister  of 
Marine  : 

"  You  will  receive  a  decree  by  which  I  order  the  building,  at 
Toulon,  at  Rochefort,  and  at  Cherburg,  of  a  frigate  of  American 
construction.  I  am  certain  that  the  English  have  had  built  a 
considerable  number  of  frigates  on  that  model.  They  go  better, 
and  they  adopt  them;  we  must  not  be  behindhand.  Those 
which  you  will  have  built  at  Toulon,  at  Rochefort,  and  at  Cher- 
burg,  will  mancEuvre  in  the  roads,  and  give  us  to  understand 
what  to  think  of  the  model." 

Since  then,  in  defence  of  the  nation,  the  American 
Navy  has  won  victories  which  placed  it  in  the  front  rank 
of  the  navies  of  the  world.  Mobile,  with  the  names  of 
Foote,  Terry,  Porter  and  Farragut,  do  not  pale  before 
any  victories  or  names  of  earth. 

A  soft  midsummer  night,  we  stood  upon  the  roof  of 
the  United  States  Observatory.  Beneath  us  was  Brad- 
dock's  Hill,  where,  generations  gone,  the  young  surveyor 
dreamed ;  and  stretching  far  on  to  its  guardian  Capitol, 
the  city  which  he  foresaw — a  verity  now — its  myriad 
lights  twinkling  through  the  misty  distance.  To  our 
right  was  Georgetown ;  beyond  Arlington  Heights,  and 
House  ;  before  us  the  Potomac,  winding  on  to  Alexan- 
dria ;  above  us  the  fathomless  heavens,  the  waxing  moon 


512  TEN  YEAES   IN  WASHINGTON. 

and  silent  stars.  Professor  Harkness  moved  an  axle ; 
the  great  revolving  dome  turned  round  and  parted ;  the 
great  telescope  was  pointed  to  the  opening,  and  the 
broad  seam  of  sky  visible  between.  We  mounted  the 
perch,  and  there  were  the  mountains  in  the  moon  !  their 
jagged  edges,  their  yawning  craters,  yet  only  for  a  mo- 
ment; for  earth  and  moon  are  swift  travellers.  In  a  mo- 
ment Madame  Moon  had  outstripped  our  point  of  vision, 
and  we  had  to  pursue  her. 

Just  before  us  was  the  unfinished  dome  of  another 
observatory,  wherein  will  soon  be  placed  the  largest 
telescope  in  the  world.  Beside  us  two  other  open 
domes,  and  upward  pointed  telescopes,  told  of  other 
star-gazers  below.  We  descended.  There,  in  a  dimly- 
lighted  room,  stood  a  solitary  man  peering  through  a 
telescope,  its  divining  face  uplifted  to  the  narrow  field 
of  stars  visible  through  the  open  dome.  Hush  !  An  ob- 
servation !  The  solitary  man  whose  face  we  now  see 
is  aged,  and  his  hair  white,  with  swift  and  silent  step 
turns  from  his  telescope  to  his  desk,  to  make  his  mathe- 
matical notes. 

"  He  need  not  do  this  unless  he  chooses,"  says  Pro- 
fessor H.  "  He  was  long  ago  promoted  above  this  work. 
But  a  man  who  has  formed  a  passion  for  star-gazing  and 
observation  never  gets  over  it."  The  room  was  dim  and 
silent  enough  to  have  been  given  up  to  the  presence  of 
death.  One  felt  as  if  some  momentous  operation  were 
going  on.  The  stars  and  the  star-gazer  both  were  felt. 
I  shrank  silent,  into  a  corner,  till  that  horoscope  was  cast, 
and  the  path  of  that  far-away  world  measured  to  its  mi- 
nutest fraction.  In  the  opposite  wing  we  found  another 
star-gazer.  Was  he  *  gazing  for  pastime  ?  Not  at  all. 


TESTING  GOVERNMENT  CHRONOMETERS.     513 

He  was  gazing  for  the  Government  and  the  sake  of 
science. 

Thusj  while  the  nation  sleeps,  its  servants  keep  watch 
not  only  of  the  weather,  but  of  remotest  worlds. 

The  chronometers  belonging  to  the  Government  are 
kept  in  a  room  set  apart  for  that  purpose.  These  instru- 
ments are  purchased  by  the  Navy  Department,  with  the 
understanding  that  they  are  to  be  tested  in  the  Observa- 
tory for  one  year.  They  are  placed  in  the  chronometer 
room,  and  are  carefully  wound  and  regulated.  They  are 
examined  daily,  and  compared  with  the  great  Astronom- 
ical Clock  of  the  Observatory,  and  an  accurate  record  of 
the  movements  of  each  one  is  kept  in  a  book  prepared 
for  that  purpose. 

The  temperature  of  the  room  is  also  examined  daily, 
and  recorded.  These  minute  records  enable  the  officers 
of  the  Observatory  to  point  out  the  exact  fault  of  each 
imperfect  chronometer.  Thanks  to  this,  the  maker  is 
enabled  to  remedy  the  defect,  and  the  instrument  is 
made  perfect.  At  the  end  of  the  year,  the  instruments 
found  to  be  unsatisfactory  are  returned  to  their  makers, 
and  those  which  pass  the  test  are  paid  for.  The  returned 
instruments  are  usually  overhauled  by  the  makers,  and 
the  defects  remedied.  They  are  then  sent  back  for  a 
trial  of  another  year,  at  the  end  of  which  time  they 
rarely  fail  to  pass. 

There  are  usually  from  sixty  to  one  hundred  chronom- 
eters on  trial  at  the  Observatory,  and  the  apartment  in 
which  they  are  kept  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  in  the 
establishment. 

The  researches  connected  with  the  famous  "  Wind-and 
Current-Charts,"  begun  and  prosecuted  so  successfully 

33 


514  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

by  Lieutenant  Matthew  F.  Maury,  whose  services  were 
lost  to  the  country  by  his  participation  in  the  Rebellion, 
are  conducted  here,  and  also  those  connected  with  "  The 
Habits  of  the  Whale,"  and  other  ocean  phenomena. 

The  Equatorial,  which  is  the  largest  telescope  in  the 
Observatory,  is  mounted  in  the  revolving  dome  which 
rises  above  the  main  building.  It  has  a  fourteen-feet 
refractor,  and  an  object-glass  nine  inches  in  diameter. 
Its  movements  are  most  ingenious,  being  regulated  by 
machinery  and  clock-work.  Its  powers  are  so  great,  that 
it  renders  stars  visible  at  midday,  and,  if  directed  at  a 
given  star  in  the  morning,  its  machinery  will  work  so 
accurately,  that  it  will  follow  with  perfect  exactness  the 
path  of  the  star,  which  will  be  visible  through  it  as  long 
as  the  star  is  above  the  horizon.  The  Meridian  and  Mu- 
ral Circles  are  in  one  of  the  rooms  below. 

The  Transit-Instrument  is  placed  in  the  west  wing  of 
the  building,  under  a  slit  twenty  inches  wide,  extending 
across  the  roofs,  and  down  the  wall  of  the  apartment  on 
each  side,  to  within  four  or  five  feet  of  the  floor.  It  was 
made  by  Estel  &  Son,  Munich,  and  is  a  seven-foot  achro- 
matic, with  a  clear  aperture  of  5.3  inches.  The  mount- 
ing consists  of  two  granite  piers,  seven  feet  high,  each 
formed  of  a  solid  block  of  that  stone,  let  down  below  the 
floor  and  imbedded  in  a  stone  foundation  eight  feet  deep, 
and  completely  isolated  from  the  building.  Midway  be- 
tween the  piers,  and  running  north  and  south,  is  the  arti- 
ficial horizon  composed  of  a  slab  of  granite  ten  feet  long, 
nineteen  inches  deep,  and  thirteen  inches  broad ;  it  rests 
on  the  foundation,  and  is  isolated  from  the  floor,  with  the 
level  of  which  the  top  of  it  is  even,  with  a  space  all 
round  it  of  half  an  inch.  In  the  middle  of  this  slab,  and 


THE  GREAT  ASTRONOMICAL  CLOCK.        515 

in  the  nadir  of  the  telescope,  there  is  a  mortise,  nine  in- 
ches square  and  ten  inches  deep,  in  which  the  artificial 
horizon  is  placed  to  protect  it  from  the  wind  during  the 
adjustment  for  collimation,  or  the  determination  of  the  er- 
ror of  collimation  of  level,  and  the  adjustment  for  stellar 
focus,  vertically  of  wires,  and  the  other  uses  of  the  colli- 
mating  eye-piece. 

The  great  Astronomical  Clock,  or  "Electro-Chrono- 
graph "  is  placed  in  the  same  room  with  the  Transit-In- 
strument, and  is  used  in  connection  with  it  to  denote  side- 
real time.  It  was  invented  by  Professor  John  Locke,  of 
Cincinnati,  and  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  instruments 
in  the  world.  By  means  of  an  electrical  battery  in  the 
building,  the  movements  of  this  clock  can  be  repeated  by 
telegraph  in  any  city  or  town  in  the  land  to  which  the 
wires  extend.  With  the  wires  connected  with  it,  its  ticks 
may  be  heard  in  any  part  of  the  country,  and  it  will  re- 
cord the  time  so  accurately  that  an  astronomer  in  Port- 
land or  New  Orleans  can  tell  with  exactness  the  time  of 
day  by  this  clock.  It  also  regulates  the  time  for  the  city. 
There  is  a  flag-staff  on  top  of  the  dome,  upon  which  a 
black  ball  is  hoisted  at  ten  minutes  before  noon,  every 
day.  This  is  to  warn  persons  desiring  to  know  the  exact 
time  to  examine  their  watches  and  clocks.  Just  as  the 
clock  records  the  hour  of  twelve,  the  ball  drops,  and  thus 
informs  the  city  that  it  is  high  noon. 

The  officials  of  the  Naval  Observatory  have  nearly  com- 
pleted the  plan  of  operation  for  observing  the  transit  of 
Venus,  which  will  occur  in  December,  1874.  Eight  par- 
ties of  five  persons  each  will  be  dispatched  ;  four  to  sta- 
tions in  the  Southern  Hemisphere,  and  the  others  to  the 
Northern.  Those  going  south  of  the  Equator  will  leave 


516  TEN  YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

New  York  next  spring  in  a  naval  vessel,  specially  prepared 
and  fitted  for  their  accommodation,  while  others  will 
probably  proceed  to  their  stations  by  mail-steamer.  The 
posts  in  the  Southern  Hemisphere  will  be  on  the  Ker- 
guelen  Islands,  Auckland  and  Van  Diemen's  Land.  In 
the  northern  station  they  will  be  located  at  Yokohama, 
Nangasaki,  Shanghai,  and  near  the  Siberian  border. 

After  the  transit,  the  observers  in  the  Southern  Hemi- 
sphere will  be  collected  by  a  Government  ship,  transported 
to  Japan,  and  sent  home  by  mail-steamer.  The  whole 
expedition  will  probably  occupy  a  year  at  least.  Each 
party  will  include  astronomers  and  photographer,  with  a 
complete  equipment  and  apparatus  for  obtaining  perfect 
observations  and  a  record  of  the  transit.  Prof.  Harkness 
will  have  charge  of  the  parties  and  observations  in  the 
Southern  Hemisphere,  and  Prof.  Newcomb  of  those  in  the 
Northern.  The  object  of  the  observation,  for  which  Con- 
gress has  appropriated  $150,000,  is  to  determine  more 
accurately  the  distance  between  the  earth  and  the  sun,  and 
the  Professors  at  the  head  of  the  expedition  expect  to  be 
able  to  settle  the  distance  within  half  a  million  of  miles. 

In  July,  1789,  Congress  organized  a  "  Department  of 
Foreign  Affairs,"  and  placed  it  in  charge  of  a  secretary, 
who  was  called  the  "Secretary  of  the  Department  of 
Foreign  Affairs."  He  was  required  to  discharge  his  duties 
"  conformably  to  the  instructions  of  the  President,"  but 
as  his  powers  were  derived  from  Congress,  he  was  required 
to  hold  himself  amenable  to  that  body,  to  attend  its  ses- 
sions, and  to  "  explain  all  matters  pertaining  to  his  prov- 
ince." In  September.  1779,  Congress  changed  the  title  of 
the  department  to  the  "  Department  of  State,"  and  made  a 
definite  enumeration  of  the  duties  of  the  Secretary. 


THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE.          517 

The  head  of  the  Department  is  the  Secretary-of-State. 
His  subordinates  are :  an  Assistant  Secretary-of-State,  a 
Chief-Clerk,  a  Superintendent  of  Statistics,  a  Translator, 
a  Librarian,  and  as  many  clerks  as  are  needed.  The  Sec- 
retary receives  a  salary  of  $8,000  per  annum.  He  con- 
ducts all  the  intercourse  of  this  Government  with  the 
governments  of  foreign  countries,  and  is  frequently  re- 
quired to  take  a  prominent  part  in  the  administration  of 
domestic  affairs.  He  countersigns  all  proclamations  and 
official  documents  issued  by  the  President.  If  popular 
rumor  be  correct,  the  Secretaries-of-State  have  frequently 
written  the  messages  and  inaugurals  of  the  Presidents, 
and  thus  have  kept  those  august  personages  from  making 
laughing-stocks  of  themselves. 

The  duties  of  the  office  require  the  exercise  of  the 
highest  ability,  and  the  Secretaries-of-State  have  usually 
been  among  the  first  statesmen  of  our  country.  The  first 
incumbent  of  the  office  was  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  the 
present  Secretary  is  the  Hon.  Hamilton  Fish,  of  New 
York. 

The  Diplomatic- Bureau  is  in  charge  of,  and  conducts 
all  the  official  correspondence  between  the  Department 
and  the  ministers  and  other  agents  of  the  United  States 
residing  abroad,  and  the  representatives  of  foreign  powers 
accredited  to  this  Government.  It  is  in  this  Bureau  that 
all  instructions  sent  from  the  Department,  and  communi- 
cations to  commissioners  under  treaties  of  boundaries,  etc., 
are  prepared,  copied,  and  recorded  ;  all  similar  communi- 
cations received  by  the  Department  are  registered  and 
filed  in  this  Bureau,  and  their  contents  are  entered  in  an 
analytical  table  or  index. 

The  Consular-Bureau  has  charge  of  all  correspondence 


518  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

and  other  business  between  the  Department  and  the  con- 
suls and  commercial  agents  of  the  United  States.  Appli- 
cations for  such  positions  are  received  and  attended  to  in 
this  Bureau.  A  concise  record  of  all  its  transactions  is 
kept  by  the  clerk  in  charge  of  it. 

The  Disbursing- Agent  has  charge  of  all  correspondence 
and  other  business  relating  to  any  and  all  expenditures 
of  money  with  which  the  Department  is  charged. 

The  Translator  is  required  to  furnish  translations  of 
such  documents  as  may  be  submitted  to  him  by  the 
proper  officers  of  the  Department.  He  also  records  the 
commissions  of  the  consuls  and  the  vice-consuls,  when  not 
in  English,  upon  which  exequaturs  are  based. 

The  Clerk  of  Appointments  and  Commissions  makes 
out  and  keeps  a  record  of  all  commissions,  letters  of  ap- 
pointment, and  nominations  to  the  Senate ;  makes  out 
and  keeps  a  record  of  all  exequaturs,  and  when  in  Eng- 
lish, the  commissions  on  which  they  are  issued.  He  also 
has  charge  of  the  Library  of  the  Department,  which  is 
large  and  valuable. 

The  Clerk  of  the  Rolls  and  Archives  has  charge  of  the 
"  rolls,"  by  which  are  meant  the  enrolled  acts  and  reso- 
lutions of  Congress,  as  they  are  received  by  the  Depart- 
ment by  the  President.  When  authenticated  copies 
thereof  are  called  for,  he  prepares  them.  He  also  pre- 
pares these  acts  and  resolutions,  and  the  various  treaties 
negotiated,  for  publication  in  the  newspapers  and  in  book 
form,  and  superintends  their  passage  through  the  press. 
He  distributes  through  the  United  States  the  various  pub- 
lications of  the  Department,  and  receives  and  answers  all 
letters  relating  thereto.  He  has  charge  of  all  treaties 
with  the  Indian  tribes,  and  all  business  relating  to  them. 


THE   CLERK   OP   PARDONS   AND   PASSPORTS.          519 

The  Clerk  of  Authentications  is  in  charge  of  the  Seals 
of  the  United  States  and  of  the  Department,  and  pre- 
pares and  attaches  certificates  to  papers  presented  for 
authentication ;  receives  and  accounts  for  the  fees ;  and 
records  the  correspondence  of  the  Department,  except 
the  diplomatic  and  consular  letters.  He  also  has  charge 
of  all  correspondence  relating  to  territorial  affairs. 

The  Clerk  of  Pardons  and  Passports  prepares  and  re- 
cords pardons  and  remissions  of  sentences  by  the  Presi- 
dent j  and  registers  and  files  the  papers  and  petitions 
upon  which  they  are  founded.  He  makes  out  and  records 
passports,  and  keeps  a  daily  register  of  letters  received, 
other  than  diplomatic  and  consular,  and  the  disposition 
made  of  them.  He  also  has  charge  of  the  correspondence 
relating  to  his  business. 

The  Superintendent  of  Statistics  prepares  the  "Annual 
Report  of  the  Secretary  of  State  and  Foreign  commerce," 
as  required  by  the  asts  of  1842  and  1856. 


CHAPTER    XLVI. 

INSIDE  THE  GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE—  THE  STORY  OF 
A  «  PUB.  DOC.»—  WOMEN  WORKERS. 

Another  Government  Hive  —  The  Largest  Printing  Establishment  in  the 
World  —  Judge  Douglass's  Villa  —  The  Celebrated  «  Pub.  Doc."  — 
"Making  Many  Books"  —  The  Convenience  of  a  "Frank"  —  The 
Omnipresent  "Doc."  —  A  Weariness  to  the  Flesh  —  An  Average 
"  Doc."  —  A  Personal  Experience  —  What  the  Nation's  Printing  Costs  —  • 
"Not  Worth  the  Paper"  —  A  Melancholy  Fact  —  Two  Sides  of  the 
Question  —  'Invaluable  "Pub.  Docs."  —  Printing  a  Million  Money-Or» 
ders  —  The  Stereotype  Foundry  —  A  Few  Figures  —  The  Government 
Printing-Office  —  A  Model  Office  —  Aiding  Human  Labor  —  Working 
by  Machinery—  The  Ink-Room  —  The  Private  Offices  —  Mr.  Clapp's 
Comfortable  Office  —  The  Proof-Reading  Room  —  The  Workers  There 

—  The  Compositors'  Room  —  The  Women  -Workers  —  Setting  Up  Her 
Daily  Task  —  A  Quiet  Spot  for  the  Executive  Printing  —  The  Tricks 
and   Stratagems  of  Correspondents  —  A   Private   Press  in  the  White 
House  —  The  Supreme  Pride   of  a  Congressional  Printer  —  Rule-and- 
Figure    Work  —  The    Executive    Binding-Room  —  Acres    of    Paper  — 
Specimens  of  Binding  —  The  "  Most  Beautiful  Binding  in  the  World  " 

—  Specimen  Copies  —  Binding  the  Surgical  History  of  the  War  —  The 
Ladies  Require  a  Little  More  Air  —  Delicate  Gold-Leaf  Work  —  The 
Folding-  Room  —  An    Army  of   Maidens  —  The    Stitching-Room  —  The 
Needles  of  Women  —  A  Busy  Girl  at  Work  —  "  Thirty  Cents  Apiece" 
Getting  Used  to  it  —  The  Girl  Over  Yonder  —  The  Manual  Labor  Sys- 
tem —  The  Story  of  a  "Pub.  Doc."  —  Preparing  "Copy"  —  "Setting 
Up  "  —  Making-Up  "  Forms  "  —  Reading  "  Proof  "  —  The  Press-Room 

—  Going  to  Press  —  Folding,   Stitching,  and  Binding  —  Sent  Out  to 
"  the  Wide,  Wide  World." 


ETTING  into  the  airy  little  Boundary  car  at  Fif- 
teenth  street,  it  soon  brings  us  far  out  on  H  street 
to  another  busy  Government  hive  —  the  largest  printing 
establishment  in  the  world. 


THE   NOTORIOUS    "  PUB.   DOC."  521 

As  late  as  1859,  the  Government  Printing-Office  stood 
upon  the  suburbs.  "Judge  Douglass's  Villa"  was  then 
one  of  the  mile-stones  which  marked  the  road  thither, 
leading  through  grassy  fields  to  the  youngest  faubourg 
of  the  capital.  Closely-built  metropolitan  blocks  already 
stretch  far  beyond  it,  and  the  great  Public  Printing-Of- 
fice no  longer  stands  on  the  "  edge  "  of  the  city. 

There  is  nothing  so  plenty  in  Washington,  not  even 
Congressmen,  as  the  "Pub.  Doc.'!  We  see  it  every- 
where, and  in  every  shape.  Piles  on  piles  of  huge  un- 
bound pamphlets,  cumber  and  crowd  the  narrow  lodgings 
of  the  average  Congressman,  waiting  the  superscription, 
and  formerly  the  "  frank,"  which  was  to  convey  each 
one  to  ten  thousand  dear  constituents.  They  cram  every 
available  nook,  "  up  stairs,  down  stairs,  and  in  my  lady's 
chamber."  They  are  patent  receptacles  for  the  dust, 
which  defies  extermination.  They  overflow  every  pub- 
lic archive,  and,  falling  down  and  running  over,  demand 
that  greater  shall  be  builded.  Thousands  on  thousands 
have  no  covers,  and  tens  of  thousands  more  are  clad  in 
purple  and  fine  linen.  The  average  Public  Doc.  is  a 
weariness  to  flesh  and  spirit.  You  get  tired  of  the 
sight — so  many,  so  many !  And  as  for  the  knowledge 
which  it  contains,  it  may  be  of  infinite  value  to  mankind, 
but  the  pursuit  of  it  through  endless  tables,  reports, 
briefs  and  statements  is  a  weariness  to  the  soul.  I  have 
tried  it  and  know.  If  I  had  not,  you  might  never  have 
known  how  many  of  these  "  Pub.  Doc's  "  are  printed  by 
the  Government,  what  for,  and  at  what  cost. 

Well,  I  will  give  you  a  few  items  in  figures,  as  they 
appear  on  the  books  of  the  office.  Of  all  executive  and 
miscellaneous  documents  and  reports  of  Committees, 


522 


TEN  YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 


there  were  printed  in  the  Government  Printing-Office, 
last  year,  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  twenty-five 
copies  iror  the  Senate,  and  one  thousand  six  hundred  and 
fifty  for  the  House,  also  eight  hundred  and  twenty-five 
copies  of  bills  and  resolutions  for  the  Senate  and  House 
each. 

Statement  showing  the  cost  of  Public  Printing  done 
in  the  Government  Printing- 0 nice  in  the  year  1872  : 


Printing 

find  Paper 

bo 

f 

*•§ 

for   e 

ame. 

"3   ^ 

a  d 

03     o 

Department. 

bo 

•s  I 

1  *2 

'&    bO 

11 

p 

1 

§  § 

S  2 

V  a  *8 

£ 

1 

M 

B  A  JK 

$8  445  45 

$4  244  40 

$12  689  85 

$11  416  55 

$24  106  40 

Treasury  Department  

141,933  17 
128  414  63 

66,809  27 
37  593  76 

207,742  44 
166  008  29 

115,119  06 
69  789  71 

322,861  50 
225  798  00 

45,171  69 

29,049  83 

74  221  62 

68,184  57 

142,406  09 

52,156  77 

12,302  95 

64'  459  72 

23  641  68 

88001  40 

Judiciary  Department  

38,303  02 

1,219  37 

39  522  39 

2,951  02 

42,473  41 

Post-Omce  Department  

81,301  63 

46,817  28 

128,118  91 

39,247  44 

167,366  35 

Department  of  A  griculture  

9,828  29 

7,599  77 

17,428  06 

4,362  39 

21,790  45 

Office  of  Congressional  Printer.  .  . 

1,077  43 

13554 

1,212  97 

290  45 

1,50342 

Total 

506  631  98 

204  772  17 

711  404  16 

324  902  87 

1  036  307  02 

Tens  of  thousands  of  public  documents  are  published 
here  whose  intrinsic  value  is  not  worth  the  paper  they 
are  printed  on.  After  witnessing  the  manual  labor  ex- 
pended on  them,  it  is  melancholy  to  reflect  that,  with  it 
all,  they  are  often  less  valuable  than  the  unsullied  paper 
would  be. 

While  this  is  true  of  an  immense  number  of  "  bills  " 
and  documents,  and  reports  of  contested  election  cases 
printed  in  this  building,  it  is  equally  true  that  thousands 
of  others  are  published  here  which  are  of  extreme  value 
not  only  to  the  Government  but  the  world. 


COST   OF   THE   NATIONAL   PRINTING.  523 

It  is  through  the  presses  of  the  Government  Printing- 
House  that  the  public  is  informed  what  the  Government 
is  doing  for  science  and  for  philanthropy.  It  prints  all 
the  reports  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution ;  Professor 
Hayden's  reports  of  yearly  United  States  Geological  Sur- 
veys, including  his  very  interesting  and  valuable  reports 
on  Wyoming,  Montana,  Nebraska,  and  the  famous  Yel- 
lowstone Valley.  The  Medical  Reports  of  the  War ;  Sur- 
geon-General Barnes'  Medical  and  Surgical  History  of 
the  War;  and  Chief-Medical-Purveyor  Baxter's  Report 
of  the  Medical  Statistics  of  the  Provost-Marshal-General's 
Bureau  ;  Reports  on  the  Diseases  of  Cattle  in  the  United 
States  ;  on  Mines  and  Mining ;  Postal  Code  and  Coast- 
Survey  Reports  ;  Reports  of  Commission  of  Education  ; 
of  the  Commissioner  of  the  United  States  to  the  Interna- 
tional Penitentiary  Congress  at  London  ;  Reports  of  the 
Government  Institution  for  Deaf  and  Dumb  and  the  In- 
sane, etc. 

These  make  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  really  in- 
teresting  and  valuable  reports  issued  yearly  by  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

When  we  remember  that  many  of  these  works  are 
accompanied  by  copious  maps  and  illustrations,  and  that 
the  processes  of  photolithographing,  lithographing  and 
engraving  are  all  executed  within  these  walls,  you  can 
form  some  estimate  of  the  value  of  its  services  to  the 
country. 

The  demands  made  upon  it  by  each  single  department 
of  the  Government  is  immense.  The  Post-Office  will 
send  in  a  single  order  for  the  printing  of  one  million 
money-orders  ;  and  the  other  departments  cry  out  to 
have  their  wants  supplied  in  the  same  proportion. 


624  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

The  Stereotype  Foundry,  under  the  same  roof,  long 
ago  vindicated  itself  in  the  facts  of  convenience  and  econ- 
omy. The  following  is  a  correct  exhibit  of  the  product 
of  its  labor  for  the  year  ending  September  30,  1872  : 

Value  of  plates,  &c.,  manufactured,  at  trade-prices,  $35,371  08 
Amount  expended  for  labor  and  material  consumed,    16,516  80 


Net  saving  to  the  Government,     .     .     .     $18,854  28 

The  Government  Printing-Office,  from  an  external 
view,  is  a  large,  long,  plain  brick  building  of  four  stories, 
with  a  cupola  in  the  centre,  and  flag-staffs  at  either  end, 
from  which  the  National  banner  floats  on  gala  days.  If 
we  enter  from  H  street,  a  large  open  door  on  the  side  re- 
veals to  us  at  once  the  power-press  room,  with  its  wheels 
and  belts ;  its  women-workers  and  its  mighty  engine.  This 
engine  of  eighty-horse  power,  swings  its  giant  lever  to  and 
fro,  with  the  accuracy  of  a  chronometer.  The  boiler  which 
supplies  its  steam-power  is  placed  in  a  separate  building, 
so  that  in  case  of  explosion  the  danger  to  human  life 
would  be  lessened.  This  boiler  also  supplies  steam  for 
heating  the  entire  main  building,  and  for  propelling  a 
"  donkey  engine,"  which  performs  the  more  menial  labor 
of  pumping  water. 

This  is  not  only  the  largest,  but  is  one  of  the  model 
printing-houses  of  the  world.  Its  typographical  arrange- 
ments are  perfect,  and  in  each  department  it  is  supplied 
with  every  appliance  of  ingenious  and  exquisite  mechan- 
ism to  save  human  muscle  and  to  aid  human  labor.  In 
the  press-room,  stretching  before  and  on  either  side  of  the 
majestic  engine,  we  see  scores  of  ponderous  presses,  their 
swiftly-flying  rollers  moving  with  the  perfect  time  of  a 


THE    GOVERNMENT   PRINTING-OFFICE.  525 

watch — at  each  revolution  clinching  the  unsullied  sheet 
of  paper  which,  in  an  instant  more,  it  tosses  forth  a 
printed  page. 

When  Benjamin  Franklin  tugged  away  at  the  little 
printing-press  now  exhibited  at  the  Patent-Office,  an 
enormous  amount  of  human  muscle  was  needed  to  per- 
form press-work;  but  now,  without  effort  and  without 
fatigue,  the  tireless  engine  supplies  the  material  power, 
while  women  do  the  work.  On  the  lower  floor  of  the 
main  building  we  find  the  wetting  room,  filled  with 
troughs  and  all  the  liquids  for  dampening  the  immense 
supply  of  paper,  beside  the  hydraulic  presses  for  smooth- 
ing it.  On  this  floor  also  is  the  "  ink  room,"  with  its  vast 
supplies  of  "  lamp-black  and  oil  "  always  ready  for  the 
rollers. 

Ascending  to  the  second  story  we  come  to  the  business 
and  private  offices  of  the  Government  Printer — his  clerks, 
telegraph-operators,  copy-holders,  and  proof-readers.  Mr. 
A.  M.  Clapp,  a  man  of  clear  intellectual  out-look,  of  be- 
nign expression  and  venerable  years,  occupies  a  pleasant 
parlor  for  an  office,  furnished  with  plain  desk,  chairs,  a 
mirror,  engravings  and  a  Brussels'  carpet;  it  opens  into  a 
suite  of  rooms  occupied  by  the  Chief-Clerk,  the  Pay- 
master and  the  Telegraph- Operator. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  hall,  we  pass  the  open  door 
of  the  proof-reading  room.  This  is  comfortably  filled  with 
men,  young  and  old.  The  copy-holder  and  the  proof- 
reader sit  side  by  side,  before  a  table  or  desk.  The  copy- 
holder has  in  bis  hands  the  original  manuscript,  from 
which  he  slowly  reads,  while  the  proof-reader  listens, 
proof-sheets  and  pencil  in  hand,  erasing  each  error  in 
print  as  he  detects  it,  from  the  lips  of  the  copy-holder. 


526  TEN   YEAKS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

The  proof-reader  is  paid  $26,  the  copy-holder  $24  per 
week. 

Ascending  a  few  steps,  we  come  into  the  composition 
room,  occupying  the  central  and  larger  portion  of  the 
second  story.  It  contains  sixty  or  more  windows,  is  spa- 
cious and  well-lighted,  and  yet,  especially  in  the  winter, 
when  the  windows  are  closed  and  the  heat  necessarily  in- 
tense, the  fumes  from  the  chemicals  render  the  work  very 
unhealthy,  especially  to  some  constitutions.  Long  rows  of 
double  stands  reach  the  entire  length  of  the  apartment. 

At  every  one  of  these  stands  a  patient  worker — he 
must  be  patient  if  he  is  a  faithful  type-setter.  Here  are 
men  past  their  prime,  young  men,  boys  and  one  woman. 
There  have  been  three.  One  left  her  stand  for  a  husband, 
another — Miss  Mary  Green — left  hers  to  become  the  edi- 
tor of  a  real-estate  journal  in  Indianapolis,  Indiana.  The 
third,  in  neat  calico  dress  and  apron,  stands  beside  a  win- 
dow, "  setting  up  "  her  daily  task.  The  pay  of  women 
In  this  room  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  men,  viz.,  $24  per 
week. 

A  portion  of  this  floor  is  shut  in  for  the  executive 
printing.  This  was  made  necessary  by  the  fact  that  be- 
fore it  was  done,  the  country  found  out  what  was  in  the 
president's  message  before  it  was  published.  Such  tricks 
and  stratagems  were  used  by  "  correspondents "  to  dis- 
cover in  advance  what  was  in  the  president's  message, 
that  one  president  had  a  press,  types  and  workmen 
brought  into  the  White  House,  that  he  might  have  his 
message  confidentially  printed,  and  "keep  it  to  himself" 
till  he  was  ready  to  give  it  to  the  world. 

The  supreme  pride  of  these  congressional  printers  is 
their  "  rule-and-figure  work."  Confused  tables  of  Com- 


INSIDE   THE   PRINTING-OFFICE.  527 

mercial  statistics,  astronomical  calculations,  and  abstracts 
of  Government  estimates,  are  marshalled  into  columns 
with  the  precision  of  a  well-trained  brigade. 

The  executive  binding-room  is  fitted  up  with  powerful 
machines  for  trimming  the  edges  of  books,  shears  for 
cutting  pasteboard,  etc.  Here  stands  a  man  who  does 
nothing,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  year,  but 
cut  book-covers.  In  another  room  are  "  ruling  machines," 
exquisite  pieces  of  mechanism,  which  trace,  in  a  year, 
acres  of  paper  with  the  delicate  red,  blue  or  black  lines 
which  rule  with  mathematical  accuracy  the  blank-books 
of  the  Government. 

The  third  floor  is  almost  exclusively  devoted  to  bind- 
ing. Some  of  the  most  beautifully  bound  books  in  the 
world  here  issue  from  the  hands  of  the  Government 
bindery.  There  are  always  specimen-copies  of  scientific 
and  other  important  reports,  which  are  bound  in  Turkey 
morocco,  finely  marbled  and  exquisitely  gilded.  The  first 
volume  of  the  Surgeon-General's  Medical  and  Surgical 
History  of  the  War,  on  the  day  of  our  visit,  was  receiv- 
ing this  artistic  finish,  of  delicate  gold  leaf,  stamped  upon 
the  rich,  dark-green  morocco. 

The  furnaces  for  heating  the  stamps,  for  gilding,  are 
heated  by  gas,  which  is  considered  safer,  cleaner  and 
healthier  than  charcoal.  Still  the  ladies  employed  in 
this  gold-leaf  work  suffer  for  want  of  air.  The  hottest 
summer  day  the  windows  have  to  remain  closed,  as  the 
lightest  zephyr  may  ruffle  fatally  the  mimosa  edges  of 
the  tremulous  foil. 

In  the  folding-room,  on  this  floor,  we  find  an  army  of 
maidens,  whose  deft  and  flying  fingers  fold  the  sheets, 
and  make  them  ready  for  the  binder.  In  the  new  wing 


528  TEN  YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

beyond  we  come  into  the  "  stitching-room."  Here  also 
the  busy  fingers  and  needles  of  women  fly.  Long  rows 
of  women,  chiefly  young  girls,  sit  at  tables  beside  wire 
frames,  which  hold  down  and  mark  the  piled-up  folios. 

Standing  beside  a  young  slender  girl,  she  seemed  to 
have  the  St.  Vitus'  dance.  Every  muscle  and  nerve  in 
her  body  flew.  The  very  nerves  in  her  face  twitched 
with  the  quick  intensity  of  her  movement ;  while  her 
fingers  stuck  the  needle  and  drew  the  thread  with  the 
persistency  of  a  perpetual  motion. 

"  You  should  be  paid  good  wages  to  work  like  this,"  I 
said. 

"  It  is  because  I  am  paid  so  little  that  I  have  to  work 
like  this,"  she  answered,  not  relaxing  an  atom. 

«  How  much  ?  " 

"  Thirty  cents  a-piece." 

"  How  many  can  you  stitch  a  day  ?  "  • 

"  Well,  if  I  work  like  this  all  day,  nine." 

"  But  I  should  think  it  would  kill  you  to  work  like  this 
all  the  time." 

"  I've  been  doing  it  for  four  years,  and  I'm  not  dead 
yet." 

I  did  not  inform  her  that  she  looked  as  if  she  soon 
would  be,  but  asked,  "Doesn't  such  constant,  quick  ac- 
'  tion  give  you  pain  ?  " 

"Yes,  in  my  shoulders,  but  I've  got  used  to  it." 

"Does  any  one  else  in  this  room  stitch  as  fast  aa 
you  do  ?  " 

"  Only  one,"  said  a  smiling  girl  who  rested  with  her 
needle  in  her  mouth  to  admire  her  dextrous  companion. 
"  There  is  only  one  other  who  can  work  as  fast  as  she ; 
it  is  that  girl,  over  yonder." 


THE    STORY    OF    A   "  PUB    DOC."  629 

There  are  no  drones  in  this  busy  hive.  The  whole 
routine  is  based  upon  the  manual  labor  system.  The 
Government  employe.,  man  or  woman,  in  the  Government 
Printing-Office,  instead  of  from  9  A.  M  to  3  P.  M.,  as  in 
all  other  departments,  works  from  8  A.  M.  to  5  P.  M.,  and 
for  smaller  pay,  proportionally,  than  is  received  in  any 
other  public  Bureau. 

Having  told  you  the  story  of  a  Dollar,  I  will  now  tell 
that  of  a  "  Pub.  Doc." — hoping  that  the  next  time  you 
feel  inclined  to  kick  it  for  the  dust  it  gathers,  and  the 
room  it  takes  up,  you  will  forgive  it  these  misfortunes, 
for  the  sake  of  the  many  busy  and  patient  human  hands 
which  fashioned  it. 

First,  it  appears  in  the  room  of  the  Government  Printer 
in  the  shape  of  a  huge  pile  of  manuscript.  Perhaps  it  is 
in  copper-plate  hand,  "  plain  as  print ; "  perhaps,  as  is 
more  likely,  it  is  a  bundle  of  unsightly  hieroglyphics  writ- 
ten on  "  rags  and  tags  "  of  paper  of  all  sorts  and  sizes. 
However  it  looks,  in  due  time  it  appears  in  the  composing- 
room,  accompanied  with  the  directions  of  the  Government 
Printer.  It  is  received  by  the  'foreman,  who  divides  it 
into  portions,  or  "  takes,"  and  it  is  now  "  copy." 

This  copy  is  put  in  the  hands  of  compositors,  who  place 
it,  every  word  and  figure,  into  what  is  called  a  "composing 
stick."  When  these  are  filled  with  the  set-up  type,  they 
are  emptied  on  wooden  boards  called  "  galleys."  Here 
the  type  is  divided  into  pages,  each  one  of  which  is  tied 
round  with  twine  so  that  it  can  be  carried  away  by  a 
practiced  hand.  These  pages  are  now  arranged  on  the 
imposing-stones,  either  by  fours  or  by  eights,  or  by  twelves, 
as  the  work  is  to  be  printed  in  quarto,  in  octavo,  or  in  duo- 
decimo form.  The  pages  are  so  regulated  that  when  the 
34 


530  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

printed  sheet  is  folded,  they  will  read  consecutively,  and 
they  are  then  wedged  tightly  in  a  "  chase,"  or  frame  of  iron 
These  pages  of  type  thus  placed  are  called  "  forms." 

A  rough  impression  of  a  form  having  been  printed,  ii 
is  given  to  the  proof-reader,  who,  with  the  copy-holder, 
notes  all  errors  with  printers'  marks.  The  compositor 
next  receives  these  corrected  pages ;  re-sets  all  wrong  let- 
ters with  the  right  ones.  When  he  has  finished,  he  takes 
a  second  proof  impression,  called  a  revise,  which  the 
proof-reader  compares  with  the  first  one,  to  see  if  all  the 
errors  have  been  accurately  corrected.  This  process  of 
revising  is  repeated  four  times,  when  the  form  is  at  last 
ready  for  the  press. 

It  is  then  lowered  by  steam-power  into  the  press-room. 
The  form  is  laid  upon  a  smooth  iron  table,  called  "  the 
bed  of  the  press,"  where  it  is  treated  to  a  good  beating. 
It  is  levelled  by  a  block  of  wood  called  a  planer,  and 
pounded  with  a  mallet,  that  no  aspiring  type  may  stick 
its  nose  above  its  fellows,  and  mar  the  perfect  level  of  the 
printed  page. 

Meanwhile,  a  sufficient  quantity  of  paper  has  been 
taken  from  the  public  store-house  to  the  wetting-room. 
There  it  has  been  dampened,  quire  by  quire,  turned  and 
laid  in  piles  under  the  crushing  pressure  of  an  hydraulic- 
pump,  worked  by  steam-power.  When  taken  out  the 
paper  is  ready  for  the  press. 

The  rollers  are  brought  from  the  room  in  which  they 
are  cleaned  and  kept,  and  set  in  the  press.  The  ink 
fountain  is  filled.  Sheet  on  sheet  of  spotless  paper  is 
placed  aloft.  The  young  woman  who  is  to  "  tend  "  mounts 
to  her  perch.  The  steam-power  is  applied,  and  the  print- 
ing begins. 


"IN   PRESS."  531 

The  maiden  takes  in  her  hand  a  single  snowy  sheet, 
and  spreads  it  on  the  inclined  plane  before  her.  It  is 
caught  by  steel  fingers  and  clutched  into  fche  abyss  be- 
neath. There  it  passes  swiftly  over  the  pages  of  type 
just  moistened  with  ink  from  the  rollers,  which  were  pre- 
viously coated  by  revolving  cylinders.  When  the  sheet 
is  directly  above  the  type,  its  flight  is  for  an  instant 
stayed,  and  by  a  potent  mechanical  movement  the  im- 
pression is  given,  and  the  sheet  is  printed.  Onward  it 
moves  transfigured,  till,  by  the  puff  of  a  pair  of  bellows, 
it  is  thrown  upon  a  frame-work  which  throws  it,  smooth 
and  fresh,  upon  a  table  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  table, 
and  by  this  time  another  is  on  its  way.  Swiftly  almost 
as  thought  it  is  tossed  above  it.  In  a  briefer  time  than 
the  process  is  traced,  the  unsullied  sheets  above  have  been 
transmuted  into  printed  pages  piled  upon  the  table  below. 

Only  one  side  of  a  sheet  is  printed  at  a  time;  thus 
each  one  goes  through  the  press  twice  before  it  leaves  the 
press-room.  Each  sheet  has  its  own  special  care.  It  is 
carried  into  the  drying-room  with  a  pile.  Each  one  takes 
its  place  on  a  large  frame  which  is  pulled  out  on  hanging 
rollers.  When  one  of  these  frames  is  covered  with  damp 
sheets  it  is  pushed  into  the  drying-machine,  which  is  made 
of  ranges  of  steam  tubes,  which  keep  a  high  temperature, 
while  the  vapor  is  carried  off  by  a  system  of  ventilation. 

When  the  sheets  are  dried,  the  frames  are  pulled  out, 
and  the  printed  sheets  are  taken  from  them  to  be  pressed. 
Each  printed  sheet  is  put  between  two  sheets  of  hard, 
smooth  pasteboard,  and  its  high  piles  of  alternate  layers 
are  subjected  again  to  the  intense  power  of  the  hydraulic- 
press.  It  comes  forth  from  that  embrace  smooth,  clear, 
complete. 


532  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

From  the  pressing-room  the  sheets  are  taken  to  the  fold- 
ing-room in  the  third  story,  conveyed  thither  by  an  ele- 
vator lifted  by  steam.  Here  they  are  folded  by  the  swift 
hands  of  girls.  Hundreds  are  busy  at  it.  Looking  down 
the  long  room  and  seeing  them  work  is  a  sight  worth 
quite  a  journey  to  see.  The  folded  pages  then  pass  to 
the  fingers  of  the  eager  stitchers.  These  pages  are  now 
a  book  in  need  of  a  binding.  Thus  it  comes  into  the 
bindery  for  its  black  cotton  cloak,  or  its  coat  of  cloth  of 
gold,  according  to  its  station  and  lot  in  life. 

This,  good  friends,  is  the  story  of  a  Pub.  Doc.  from  its 
birth  to  the  hour  when  it  starts  on  its  first  journey  out 
into  "  the  wide,  wide  world." 


CHAPTER  XLVII. 

INSIDE  THE  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION— ITS   TREASURES  OF 

ART   AND    SCIENCE— THE   LARGEST   COLLECTION  IN 

THE  WORLD. 

A  Singular  Bequest — Strange  Story  of  James  Smithson — A  Good  Use  of 
Money — Seeking  the  Diffusion  of  Knowledge — Catching  a  Tear  from  a 
Lady's  Cheek — Analysis  of  the  Same  Tear — The  Attainments  of  a  Phi- 
losopher— A  brief  Tract  on  Coffee-Making — James  Smithson's  Will — 
A  Genealogical  Declaration — Announcing  a  Bequest  to  Congress — Dis- 
cussions and  Reports — Praiseworthy  Efforts  of  Robert  Dale  Owen — The 
Bequest  Accepted— The  Board  of  Regents— The  Plan  of  the  Institu- 
tion— Its  Intent  and  Object — Changes  Made  by  the  Regents — Ex-Officio 
Members  of  the  Institution — "  The  Power  Behind  the  Throne  " — The 
Secretary — The  Smithsonian  Reservation — The  Smithsonian  Building — 
Its  Style  of  Architecture — Inside  the  Building — Injuries  Received  by 
Fire— Loss  of  Works  of  Art— The  Museum— Treasures  of  Art  and  Sci- 
ence— The  Results  of  Thirty  Government  Expeditions — The  Largest 
Collection  in  the  World— Valuable  Mineral  Specimens— All  the  Verte- 
brated  Animals  of  North  America — Classified  Curiosities — The  Smithso- 
nian Contributions — Comprehensive  Character  of  the  Institution — Its 
Advantages  and  Operations — Results — The  Agricultural  Bureau — Its 
Plan  and  Object — Collecting  Valuable  Agricultural  Facts — Helping  the 
Purchaser  of  a  Farm — The  Expenses  of  the  Bureau — The  Library — Na- 
ture-Printing— In  the  Museum — The  Great  California  Plank — Vegetable 
Specimens — International  Exchanges. 

AN  Englishman,  of  the   name  of  James   Smithson, 
gave  all   his   property  to  the   United   States   of 
America,  to  found  at  Washington,  under  the  name  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,   "  an   establishment  for  the  in- 
crease and  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men." 

But  few  are  aware  of  the  singularity  of  the  bequest. 
Such  a  donation,  from  a  citizen  of  Europe,  would  be  re- 


534  TEN  TEAKS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

markable  under  any  circumstances ;  but  it  was  much 
more  singular  coming  from  an  Englishman,  endued  with 
no  small  degree  of  pride  of  country  and  lineage,  if  we 
may  judge  from  the  pains  he  takes,  in  the  caption  of  his 
will,  to  detail  his  descent  from  the  nobility.  He  is  not 
known  to  have  ever  visited  the  United  States,  or  to  have 
had  any  friends  residing  here.  Mr.  Rush  informs  us  that 
he  was  a  natural  son  of  the  Duke  of  Northumberland, 
his  mother  being  Mrs.  Macie,  of  an  ancient  family  in 
Wiltshire,  of  the  name  of  Hungerford  ;  he  was  educated 
at  Oxford,  where  he  took  an  honorary  degree.  In  1786, 
he  took  the  name  of  James  Lewis  Macie,  until  a  few 
years  after  he  left  the  University,  when  he  changed  it  to 
Smithson.  He  does  not  appear  to  have  had  any  fixed 
home,  living  in  lodgings  when  in  London,  and  occasion- 
ally, a  year  or  two  at  a  time,  in  the  cities  on  the  conti- 
nent, as  Paris,  Berlin,  Florence,  and  Genoa;  at  which 
last  place  he  died.  The  ample  provision  made  for  him 
by  the  Duke  of  Northumberland,  with  retired  and  sim- 
ple habits,  enabled  him  to  accumulate  the  fortune  which 
passed  to  the  United  States.  He  interested  himself  little 
in  questions  of  government,  being  devoted  to  science,  and 
chiefly  to  chemistry.  This  had  introduced  him  to  the 
society  of  Cavendish,  "Wollaston,  and  others,  advanta- 
geously known  to  the  Royal  Society  in  London,  of  which 
he  was  a  member. 

In  a  paper  relative  to  one  of  the  publications  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  read  before  a  scientific  society  at 
Dublin,  it  is  stated,  on  the  authority  of  Chambers'  Jour- 
nal, that  he  had  gained  a  name  by  the  analysis  of  minute 
quantities,  and  that  "  it  was  he  who  caught  a  tear  as  it 
fell  from  a  lady's  cheek,  and  detected  the  salts  and  other 
substances  which  it  held  in  solution." 


THE    SMITHSONIAN   INSTITUTION.  535 

In  a  notice  of  his  scientific  pursuits,  by  Professor  John- 
son, of  Philadelphia,  there  are  enumerated  twenty-four 
papers,  or  treatises  by  Smithson,  published  in  the  Trans- 
actions of  the  Royal  Society,  and  other  scientific  jour- 
nals of  the  day,  containing  articles  on  mineralogy,  geol- 
ogy, and  more  especially  mineral  chemistry.  In  the 
Annals  of  Philosophy  (Vol.  22,  page  30)  he  has  a  brief 
tract  on  the  method  of  making  coffee.  The  small  case 
of  hij  personal  effects,  which  is  to  be  preserved  in  a  sep- 
arate apartment  of  the  Institution,  consists  chiefly  of 
minerals  and  chemical  apparatus. 

The  will  indicates  a  degree  of  sensitiveness  on  the  sub- 
ject of  his  illegitimacy.  He  starts  with  a  declaration  of 
pedigree : 

I,  James  Smithson,  son  of  Hough,  first  Duke  of  Northumber- 
land, and  Elizabeth,  heiress  of  the  Hungerfords  of  Audley,  and 
niece  of  Charles  the  Proud,  Duke  of  Somerset,  now  residing  in 
,Bentmck  street,  Cavendish  Square,  do  make  this  my  last  will 
and  testament,  ...... 

"  To  found  at  Washington,  under  the  name  of  the  Smithso- 
nian Institution,  an  establishment  FOR  THE  INCREASE  AND 
DIFFUSION  OF  KNOWLEDGE  AMONG  MEN." 

The  bequest  was  first  announced  to  Congress  by  Pres- 
ident Jackson,  in  1835.  Long  discussions  and  reports 
followed ;  first,  upon  the  propriety  of  accepting  the  trust ; 
and  next,  upon  the  kind  of  institution  to  be  established ; 
in  the  course  of  which  the  ablest  minds  in  the  country, 
in  and  out  of  Congress,  gave  expression  to  their  views. 
The  report  of  Mr.  Adams  was  particularly  eloquent. 
The  objection  to  receiving  the  bequest  was  based  mainly 
upon  the  alleged  absence  of  constitutional  power,  but 
partly  upon  policy. 


536  TEN   YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

The  discussion  as  to  the  kind  of  institution  which  would 
best  fulfil  the  testator's  intention,  extended  through  a 
series  of  years,  and  led  to  almost  every  possible  proposi- 
tion. I  shall  not  attempt  to  give  even  an  outline  of  these 
debates,  which  finally  culminated  in  the  adoption  of  a 
somewhat  mixed  scheme,  allowing  of  almost  anything. 
To  Robert  Dale  Owen,  of  Indiana,  is  mainly  due  the 
credit  of  finally  pressing  the  bill  to  a  vote.  The  Act  re- 
quired that  there  be  provided  a  hall  or  halls  for  a  library, 
a  museum,  a  chemical  laboratory,  necessary  lecture- 
rooms,  and  a  gallery  of  art. 

The  Board  of  Regents,  in  whose  hands  the  control  of 
the  institution  is  vested,  drew  up  the  following  general 
plan,  upon  which  the  operations  of  the  institution  have 
been  conducted,  this  plan  being,  in  their  judgment,  best 
calculated  to  carry  into  effect  the  wishes  of  the  founder : 

To  Increase  Knowledge :  It  is  proposed — first,  to  stimulate 
men  of  talent  to  make  original  researches,  by  offering  suitable 
rewards  for  memoirs  containing  new  truths ;  and,  second,  to 
appropriate  annually  a  portion  of  the  income  for  particular  re- 
searches, under  the  direction  of  suitable  persons. 

To  Diffuse  Knowledge :  It  is  proposed — first,  to  publish  a 
series  of  periodical  reports  on  the  progress  of  the  different 
branches  of  knowledge ;  and,  second,  to  publish  occasionally 
separate  treatises  on  subjects  of  general  interest. 

Details  of  Plan  to  Increase  Knowledge  by  Stimulating  Re- 
searches :  First,  facilities  to  be  afforded  for  the  production  of 
original  memoirs  on  all  branches  of  knowledge.  Second,  the 
memoirs  thus  obtained  to  be  published  in  a  series  of  volumes,  in 
a  quarto  form,  and  entitled  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowl- 
edge. Third,  no  memoir,  on  subjects  of  physical  science,  to  be 
accepted  for  publication,  which  does  not  furnish  a  positive  addi- 
tion to  human  knowledge,  resting  on  original  research ;  and  all 


GENERAL  PLAN  OF  THE  INSTITUTION.      537 

unverified  speculations  to  be  rejected.  Fourth,  each  memoir 
presented  to  the  institution  to  be  submitted  for  examination  to 
a  commission  of  persons  of  reputation  for  learning  in  the  branch 
to  which  the  memoir  pertains,  and  to  be  accepted  for  publica- 
tion only  in  case  the  report  of  this  commission  is  favorable. 
Fifth,  the  Commission  to  be  chosen  by  officers  of  the  Institution, 
and  the  name  of  the  author,  as  far  as  practicable,  concealed, 
unless  a  favorable  decision  be  made.  Sixth,  the  volumes  of  the 
memoirs  to  be  changed  for  the  transactions  of  literary  and  sci- 
entific societies,  and  copies  to  be  given  to  all  the  colleges  and 
principal  libraries  in  this  country.  One  part  of  the  remaining 
copies  may  be  offered  for  sale,  and  the  other  carefully  preserved, 
to  form  complete  sets  of  the  work  to  supply  the  demand  for  new 
institutions.  Seventh,  an  abstract,  or  popular  account,  of  the 
contents  of  these  memoirs,  to  be  given  to  the  public  through 
the  annual  reports  of  the  Regents  to  Congress. 

By  Appropriating  a  Part  of  the  Income,  Annually,  to  Special 
Objects  of  Research,  under  the  Direction  of  Suitable  Persons: 
First,  the  objects,  and  the  amount  appropriated,  to  be  recom- 
mended by  Councillors  of  the  Institution.  Second,  appropria- 
tions in  different  years  to  different  objects ;  so  that,  in  course  of 
time,  each  branch  of  knowledge  may  receive  a  share.  Third, 
the  results  obtained  from  these  appropriations  to  be  published, 
with  the  memoirs  before  mentioned,  in  the  volumes  of  the 
Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge.  Fourth,  examples  of 
objects  for  which  appropriations  may  be  made :  1.  System  of 
extended  meteorological  observations  for  solving  the  problem 
of  American  storms ;  2.  Explorations  in  descriptive  natural 
history,  and  geological,  magnetical,  and  topographical  surveys, 
to  collect  materials  for  the  formation  of  a  physical  atlas  of  the 
United  States ;  3.  Solution  of  experimental  problems,  such  as  a 
new  determination  of  the  weight  of  the  earth,  of  the  velocity 
of  electricity  and  of  light;  chemical -analyses  of  soils  and  plants; 
collection  and  publication  of  scientific  facts  accumulated  in  the 
offices  of  Government;  4.  Institution  of  statistical  inquiries 
with  reference  to  physical,  moral,  and  political  subjects ;  5.  His- 


538  TEN  TEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

torical  researches,  and  accurate  surveys  of  places  celebrated  in 
American  history  ;  6.  Ethnological  researches,  particularly  with 
reference  to  the  different  races  of  men  in  North  America ;  also, 
explorations  and  accurate  surveys  of  the  mounds  and  other  re- 
mains of  the  ancient  people  of  our  country. 

Details  of  the  Plan  for  Diffusing  Knowledge :  First,  by  the 
publication  of  a  series  of  reports,  giving  an  account  of  the  new 
discoveries  in  science,  and  of  the  changes  made  from  year  to 
year  in  all  branches  of  knowledge,  not  strictly  professional. 
These  reports  will  diffuse  a  kind  of  knowledge  generally  inter- 
esting, but  which,  at  present,  is  inaccessible  to  the  public.  Some 
reports  may  be  published  annually,  others  at  longer  intervals,  as 
the  income  of  the  Institution  or  the  changes  in  the  branches  of 
knowledge  may  indicate.  Second,  the  reports  are  to  be  pre- 
pared by  collaborators  eminent  in  the  different  branches  of 
knowledge.  Third,  each  collaborator  to  be  furnished  with  the 
journals  and  publications,  domestic  and  foreign,  necessary  to  the 
compilation  of  his  report ;  to  be  paid  a  certain  sum  for  his  la- 
bors, and  to  be  named  on  the  title-page  of  the  report.  Fourth, 
the  reports  to  be  published  in  separate  parts,  so  that  persons 
interested  in  a  particular  branch  can  procure  the  parts  relating 
to  it  without  purchasing  the  whole.  Fifth,  these  reports  may  be 
presented  to  Congress  for  partial  distribution,  the  remaining 
copies  to  be  given  to  literary  and  scientific  institutions,  and  sold 
to  individuals  for  a  moderate  price. 

By  the  Publication  of  Separate  Treatises  on  Subjects  of  Gen- 
eral Interest :  First,  these  treatises  may  occasionally  consist  of 
valuable  memoirs  translated  from  foreign  languages,  or  of  arti- 
cles prepared  under  the  direction  of  the  Institution,  or  procured 
by  offering  premiums  for  the  best  exposition  of  a  given  subject. 
Second,  the  treatises  should,  in  all  cases,  be  submitted  to  a  com- 
mission of  competent  judges,  previous  to  their  publication. 

"  The  only  changes  made  in  the  policy  above  indicated 
have  been  the  passage  of  resolutions,  by  the  Regents,  re- 
pealing the  .equal  division  of  the  income  between  the  act- 


HOW   THE   INSTITUTION   IS    GOVERNED.  539 

ive  operations  and  the  museum  and  library,  and  further 
providing  that  the  annual  appropriations  are  to  be  appor- 
tioned specifically  among  the  different  objects  and  opera- 
tions of  the  Institution,  in  such  manner  as  may,  in  the 
judgment  of  the  Regents,  be  necessary  and  proper  for 
each,  according  to  its  intrinsic  importance,  and  a  compli- 
ance in  good  faith  with  the  law." 

The  Act  of  Congress,  organizing  the  Institution,  makes 
the  President  and  Vice-President  of  the  United  States, 
the  Cabinet  Ministers,  the  Chief-Justice  of  the  United 
States,  the  Cabinet  Ministers  and  the  Mayor  of  Washing- 
ton, members  ex  officio  of  the  Institution.  The  Board  of  Re- 
gents charged  with  the  control  of  the  Institution,  consists 
of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  the  Mayor  of  Wash- 
ington, three  Senators  of  the  United  States,  three  mem- 
bers of  the  House  of  Representatives,  who  are  ex  officio 
Regents,  six  persons,  not  members  of  Congress,  two  of 
whom  must  be  citizens  of  Washington,  and  members  of 
the  National  Institute  of  that  city,  and  the  other  four 
citizens  of  any  of  the  states  of  the  Union,  no  two  of 
whom  are  to  be  chosen  from  the  same  state.  The  Board 
of  Regents  make  annual  reports  of  their  conduct  of  the 
Institution  to  Congress. 

The  real  "power  behind  the  throne"  is  the  Secretary 
of  the  Institution,  who  is  executive  officer.  He  has 
charge  of  the  edifice,  its  contents,  and  the  grounds,  and 
is  given  as  many  assistants,  as  are  necessary  to  enable 
him  to  conduct  the  varied  operations  of  the  Institution. 
The  property  of  the  Institution  is  placed  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  laws  for  the  preservation  and  safe  keeping 
of  the  public  buildings  and  grounds  of  the  City  of  Wash- 
ington. 


510  TEN  TEAKS   IN  WASHINGTON. 

Upon  the  organization  of  the  Institution,  Congress  set 
apart  for  its  use  a  portion  of  the  public  ground  lying 
westward  of  the  Capitol,  and  between  it  and  the  Poto- 
mac River.  Fifty-two  acres  comprised  the  grant,  which 
was  known  as  the  "Smithsonian  Reservation."  They 
were  laid  out  under  the  supervision  of  Andrew  Jackson 
Downing.  He  died  while  engaged  in  this  work,  and  his 
memory  is  perpetuated  by  a  memorial  erected  in  the 
grounds  in  1852,  by  the  American  Pomological  Society, 
and  consisting  of  a  massive  vase  resting  on  a  handsome 
pedestal,  with  appropriate  inscriptions,  the  whole  being 
of  the  finest  Italian  marble. 

The  building  is  situated  near  the  centre  of  the  grounds 
as  they  originally  existed,  the  centre  of  the  edifice  being 
immediately  opposite  Tenth  Street  west.  It  is  construc- 
ted of  a  fine  quality  of  lilac-gray  freestone,  found  in  the 
new  red  sandstone  formation,  where  it  crosses  the  Poto- 
mac, near  the  mouth  of  Seneca  Creek,  one  of  the  tribu- 
taries of  that  river,  and  about  twenty-three  miles  above 
Washington.  The  stone  is  very  soft  at  first,  and  is  quarried 
with  comparative  ease.  In  its  fresh  state,  it  may  be* 
worked  with  the  chisel  and  mallet ;  but  it  hardens  rap- 
idly upon  exposure  to  the  air  and  weather,  and  will  with- 
stand, after  a  time,  the  severest  usage. 

The  structure  is  in  the  style  of  architecture  belonging 
to  the  last  half  of  the  twelfth  century,  the  latest  variety 
of  rounded  style,  as  it  is  found  immediately  anterior  to 
its  merging  into  the  early  Gothic,  and  is  known  as  the 
Norman,  the  Lombard,  or  Romanesque.  The  semi-circu- 
lar arch,  stilted,  is  employed  throughout,  in  door,  windows, 
and  other  openings. 

The  main  building  is  205  feet  long  by  57  feet  wide, 


THE    RAVAGES    OF    FIRE.  541 

and  to  the  top  of  the  corbel  course,  58  feet  high.  The 
east  wing  is  82  by  52  feet,  and  to  the  top  of  its  battle- 
ment, 42  i  feet  high.  The  west  wing,  including  its  pro- 
jecting apsis,  is  84  by  40  feet,  and  38  feet  high.  Each 
of  the  wings  is  connected  with  the  main  building  by  a 
range  which,  including  its  cloisters,  is  60  feet  long  by  49 
feet  wide.  This  makes  the  length  of  the  entire  building, 
from  east  to  west,  447  feet.  Its  greatest  breadth  is  160 
feet. 

The  north  front  of  the  main  building  has  two  central 
towers,  the  loftiest  of  which  is  150  feet  high.  It  has  also 
a  broad,  covered  carriage-way,  upon  which  opens  the 
main  entrance  to  the  building.  The  south  central  tower 
is  37  feet  square,  91  feet  high,  and  massively  constructed. 
A  double  campanile  tower,  17  feet  square,  117  feet  high, 
rises  from  the  north-east  corner  of  the  main  building ; 
and  the  south-west  corner  has  an  imposing  octagonal 
tower,  in  which  is  a  spiral  stair-way,  leading  to  the  sum- 
mit. There  are  four  other  smaller  towers  of  lesser  hights, 
making  nine  in  all,  the  effect  of  which  is  very  beautiful, 
and  which  once  caused  a  wit  to  remark  that  it  seemed  to 
him  as  if  a  "  collection  of  church  steeples  had  gotten 
lost,  and  were  consulting  together  as  to  the  best  means 
of  getting  home  to  their  respective  churches." 

The  building  was  much  injured  by  fire  in  January, 
1865.  The  flames  destroyed  the  upper  part  of  the  main 
buildings,  and  the  towers.  Although  the  lower  story 
was  saved,  the  valuable  official,  scientific,  and  miscella- 
neous correspondence,  record-books,  and  manuscripts  in 
the  Secretary's  office,  the  large  collection  of  scientific 
apparatus,  the  personal  effects  of  James  Smithson,  Stan- 
ley's Collection  of  Indian  Portraits,  and  much  other  val- 


542  TEN   YEAES    IN   WASHINGTON. 

liable  property  were  destroyed.  Fortunately,  the  Li- 
brary, Museum,  and  Laboratory  were  uninjured.  The 
fire  made  no  interruption  in  the  practical  workings  of 
the  Institution,  and  in  a  comparatively  short  space  of 
time  the  burned  portions  were  restored. 

The  museum  occupies  the  ground-floor,  and  is  the  prin- 
cipal attraction  to  a  large  portion  of  the  visitors.  It  is 
a  spacious  hall,  containing  two  tiers  of  cases,  in  which  are 
placed  the  specimens  on  exhibition.  Access  to  the  upper 
tier  of  cases  is  had  by  means  of  a  light  iron  gallery, 
which  is  reached  by  stair-ways  of  the  same  material. 
The  Official  Guide  to  the  Institution,  thus  describes  the 
Museum : 

Under  these  provisions,  the  Institution  has  received 
and  taken  charge  of  such  Government  collections  in  min- 
eralogy, geology  and  natural  history,  as  have  been  made 
since  its  organization.  The  amount  of  these  has  been 
very  great,  as  all  the  United  States  geological,  boundary, 
and  railroad  surveys,  with  the  various  topographical, 
military,  and  naval  explorations,  have  been,  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent,  ordered  to  make  such  collections  as  would 
illustrate  the  physical  and  natural  history  features  of  the 
regions  traversed. 

Of  the  collections  made  by  thirty  Government  expedi- 
tions, those  of  twenty-five  are  now  deposited  with  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  embracing  more  than  five-sixths 
of  the  whole  amount  of  materials  collected.  The  princi- 
ple expeditions  thus  furnishing  collections  are  the  United 
States  Geological  Surveys  of  Doctors  Owen,  Jackson,  and 
Evans,  and  Messrs  Foster  and  Whitney ;  the  United  States 
and  Mexican  boundary  survey ;  the  Pacific  Railroad  sur- 
vey ;  the  exploration  of  the  Yellowstone,  by  Lieutenant 


THE    TREASUKES    OF   THE   INSTITUTION.  543 

Warren ;  the  survey  of  Lieutenant  Bryant ;  The  United 
States  naval  astronomical  expedition ;  the  North  Pacific 
Behring's  Strait  expedition ;  the  Japan  expedition,  and 
Paraguay  expedition. 

The  Institution  has  also  re'ceived,  from  other  sources, 
collections  of  greater  or  less  extent,  from  various  por- 
tions of  North  America,  tending  to  complete  the  Govern- 
ment series. 

The  collections  thus  made,  taken  as  a  whole,  consti- 
tute the  largest  and  best  series  of  the  minerals,  fossils, 
rocks,  animals,  and  plants  of  the  entire  continent  of 
North  America,  in  the  world.  Many  tons  of  geological 
and  mineralogical  specimens,  illustrating  the  surveys 
throughout  the  West,  are  embraced  therein.  There  is 
also  a  very  large  collection  of  mineralsiof  the  mining 
regions  of  Northern  Mexico,  and  of  New  Mexico,  made 
by  a  practical  Mexican  geologist,  during  a  period  of 
twenty-five  years,  and  furnishing  indications  of  many 
rich  mining  localities  within  our  own  borders,  yet  un* 
known  to  the  American  people. 

It  includes  also,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  all  the 
vertebrate  animals  of  North  America.  The  greater  part 
of  the  mammalia  have  been  arranged  in  walnut  drawers, 
made  proof  against  dust  and  insects.  The  birds  have 
been  similarly  treated,  while  the  reptiles  and  fish  have 
been  classified,  as,  to  some  extent,  have  also  been  the 
shells,  minerals,  fossils,  and  plants. 

The  Museum  hall  is  quite  large  enough  to  contain 
all  the  collections  hitherto  made,  as  well  as  such  others 
as  may  be  assigned  to  it.  No  single  room  in  the  country 
is,  perhaps,  equal  to  it  in  capacity  or  adaptation  to  its 
purposes,  as,  by  the  arrangements  now  being  perfected, 


544  TEN  TEAES   IN  WASHINGTON. 

• 

and  denoted  in  the  illustration,  it  is  capable  of  receiving 
twice  as  large  a  surface  of  cases  as  the  old  Patent-Office 
hall,  and  three  times  that  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  of 
Philadelphia. 

The  Smithsonian  Contributions  are  the  work  of  men 
residing  in  every  part  of  the  United  States.  Does  an 
individual  think  he  has  the  data  upon  which  to  base  an 
important  discovery,  he  communicates  his  plans  to  the 
Institution.  His  suggestions  are  referred  to  men  in  other 
places,  who  have  made  that  branch  an  especial  subject  of 
study,  and  who  are  not  advised  of  the  author's  name.  If 
they  report  favorably  upon  it,  the  author  is  furnished 
with  facilities  for  pursuing  and  describing  his  investiga- 
tions. Does  he  want  some  book  not  to  be  found  in  the 
library  nearestlhis  home  ?  The  Institution  purchases  it 
and  loans  it  toTiim,  to  be  returned  to  the  library.  His 
work,  when  finished,  may  be  invaluable  to  a  scientific 
man,  but  is  not  in  sufficient  demand  to  warrant  any  pub- 
lisher in  issuing  it.  The  Institution  prints  it,  with  the 
proper  illustrations,  and  gives  the  author  the  privilege 
of  using  the  plates  in  order  to  print  a  copyright  for  sale. 
Those  published  by  the  Institution  are  sent  to  every 
great  library  and  to  every  scientific  body  in  the  world ; 
and  those  bodies,  in  return,  send  back  all  their  publica- 
tions. Thus,  already,  a  most  valuable  library  has  been 
collected,  containing  books  hardly  to  be  found  collected 
together  anywhere  else  in  the  United  States. 

Thirty  years  ago,  the  merely  nominal  sum  of  $1,000 
was,  at  the  instance  of  the  Commissioner  of  Patents, 
Hon.  H.  L.  Ellsworth,  devoted  by  Congress  for  the  pur- 
poses of  Agriculture.  For  two  years  before,  this  patri- 


TROPICAL  FRUITS. 
INSIDE  THE  GOVERNMENT  CONSERVATORY. 


-WASHINGTON. 


THE   INSTITUTION    GARDENS.  545 

otic  gentleman  had  been  distributing  seeds  and  plants 
gratuitously,  and  for  nine  years,  during  his  entire  term 
of  office,  he  continued  his  good  work.  His  successors  in 
the  Patent-Office  kept  up  the  practice ;  but  it  was  not 
until  1862  that  the  Department  of  Agriculture  was  for- 
mally organized. 

It  now  nominally  belongs  to  the  Department  of  the 
Interior,  but  in  every  essential  is  a  distinct  department 
in  itself. 

The  beautiful  building  built  expressly  for  it,  and  dedi- 
cated exclusively  to  its  uses,  terminates  one  of  the  finest 
vistas  running  out  from  Pennsylvania  avenue.  It  stands 
within  the  grounds  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  sur- 
rounded by  spacious  conservatories  and  wide  blooming 
gardens — every  plant  and  tree  indigenous  to  our  coun- 
try— from  the  luxuriant  tropical  vegetation  of  the  South- 
ern States,  to  the  dwarfed  and  hardy  foliage  of  our  north- 
ern borders,  may  be  found  in  its  grounds.  A  division  is 
devoted  to  horticulture,  and  the  propagation  and  accli- 
matization of  new  and  foreign  species.  Studies  in  orna- 
mentation, in  the  best  means  of  hybridizing,  budding, 
pruning  and  grafting,  in  treating  diseases  of  plants  and 
trees,  are  thoroughly  pursued  in  the  experimental  gar- 
dens. Seeds  of  new  varieties  and  of  superior  quality,  as 
soon  as  they  are  obtained,  are  freely  distributed  through- 
out the  country,  on  application  to  the  Commissioner  of 
Agriculture. 

The  Department  maintains,  at  least,  one  correspondent 
in  every  county  of  the  United  States,  through  whom 
statistics  of  quality  and  quantity  of  crops,  and  other 
facts,  are  forwarded  to  Washington,  to  be  there  distrib- 
uted by  means  of  the  monthly  and  yearly  reports.  Spe- 

35 


546  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

cialists  are  also  employed  to  prepare  for  these  reports 
instructive  articles  on  suitable  topics.  Questions  from 
agriculturists  are  freely  answered  and  the  fullest  possi- 
ble information  afforded.  The  purchaser  of  a  farm  situ- 
ated in  a  region  with  which  he  is  unacquainted,  has  only 
to  inquire,  and  the  department- will  tell  him  the  crops 
likely  to  prove  remunerative  in  the  special  locality,  ad- 
vjse  him  regarding  cultivation,  and  warn  him  of  obstacles 
to  be  surmounted,  and  the  best  means  of  overcoming 
them.  A  chemist  will  analyze  the  soil,  report  as  to  its 
properties  and  the  value  of  fertilizers  to  be  used  thereon ; 
a  botanist  will  give  every  particular  regarding  the  na- 
tures and  diseases  of  plants,  and  will  point  out  in  what 
families  to  seek  needed  products,  and  what  effect  a  change 
of  soil  will  have  upon  them.  An  entomologist  will  give 
advice  regarding  the  insects  which  destroy  vegetation, 
and  as  to  the  best  mode  for  their  extermination. 

As  compared  with  the  other  national  bureaux,  the  ex- 
pense of  this  department  is  remarkably  small.  The  cost 
of  the  library  and  museum  was  $140,000,  and  the  con- 
servatories were  built  at  an  expense  of  but  $52,000 
more.  The  library  contains  a  valuable  collection  of  ag- 
ricultural literature  in  several  languages.  Volumes  of 
rare  pictures  are  arranged  on  long  tables ;  one  work,  a 
present  from  Francis  Joseph  I.,  Emperor  of  Austria,  en- 
titled "Nature-Printing,"  containing  representations  of 
ferns  so  exquisitely  printed  that  it  is  difficult  to  believe 
them  unreal. 

In  the  museum  are  specimens  of  fibrous.products,  cereals 
of  this  and  other  countries,  stuffed  birds  and  plaster-casts 
of  fruits  from  all  the  different  sections  of  the  United 
States,  arranged  so  as  to  show  at  a  glance  the  products 


THE  IMMIK  AND  SPIRAL  STAIR  CASE,  BARE  PLANTS  AND  FLOWEKS. 
INSIDE   1  Hi:  GOVERNMENT  CONSERVATORY.— WASHINGTON. 


THE   SMITHSONIAN   MUSEUM.  547 

of  each  region  and  the  specific  changes  caused  by  trans- 
portation. On  the  walls  of  the  fruit-cabinet  are  hung 
diagrams  showing  the  character  and  habits  of  the  different 
insects  that  prey  upon  fruit  and  fruit  trees ;  and  in  glass 
cases  are  preserved  the  native  birds  that  feed  upon  de- 
structive insects,  and  should  be  protected  by  the  kind 
treatment  of  the  agriculturist. 

The  halls  of  this  beautiful  building  are  laid  with  im- 
ported tiles,  its  ceilings  are  exquisitely  frescoed,  and 
many  of  its  walls  hung  with  wood-paper  in  rich  blending 
tints.  The  museum  filling  the  main  hall  of  the  second 
floor  is  furnished  with  lofty,  air-tight  walnut  cases. 

The  great  California  plank  which  once  stood  in  one  of 
the  underground  halls  of  the  Patent-Office,  has  been 
wrought  into  a  massive  table  which  stands  in  the  Mu- 
seum. It  is  seven  feet  by  twelve,  and  looks  like  a  bill- 
iard-table without  the  cloth,  and  is  finely  polished.  The 
legs  and  frame  are  made  of  Florida  cedar.  The  top  of 
the  table  is  composed  of  the  plank ;  it  looks  like  solid 
mahogany  without  knot  or  blemish.  Much  attention 
has  been  given  to  the  cultivation  of  the  fibrous  grasses 
which,  in  China,  are  woven  into  fine  and  durable  cloth. 
Specimens  of  these  grasses,  and  of  the  cloth  which  they 
make,  in  its  various  stages  of  manufacture,  are  on  exhi- 
bition in  the  cases  of  the  museum.  A  number  of  acres 
have  been  set  apart  in  the  grounds  for  the  cultivation  of 
these  grasses.  The  shade-trees  of  our  entire  country  are 
to  be  represented  in  these  grounds.  Already  over  one 
thousand  four  hundred  native  varieties  have  been  planted. 

Through  the  Smithsonian  Institute  the  Department  has- 
been  put  into  communication  with  leading  foreign  agri- 
cultural societies,  and  the  result  has  been,  not  only  an 


548  TEN  TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

exchange  of  reports,  but  of  almost  every  known  specimen 
of  flower-seeds,  seeds  of  shrubs,  vegetables  and  fruits. 
The  display  of  flowers  in  the  agricultural  grounds  is 
already  something  wonderful,  and  soon  will  equal  any  like 
display  in  the  world. 


TROPICAL  PLANTS  AND  FLOWERS. 
INSIDE  THE  GOVERNMENT  CONSERVATORY.— WASHINGTON. 


CHAPTER  XLVHI. 


OLD  HOMES  AND  HAUNTS  OP  WASHINGTON— MEMORIES  OF 
OTHER  DAYS. 

The  Oldest  Home  in  Washington— The  Cottage  of  David  Burns— David 
Burns's  Daughter — Singing  a  Lady's  Praises — The  Attractions  of  a  Cot- 
tage—" Tom  Moore  "  the  Poet  Pays  Homage  to  Fair  Marcia— The  Fa- 
vored Suitor — How  the  Lady  was  Wooed  and  Won — Mother  and  Daugh- 
ter—The Offering  to  God— The  City  Orphan  Asylum— A  Costly  Mauso- 
leum— The  Assassination  Conspiracy — Persecuting  the  Innocent — A  Sug- 
gestion for  the  Board  of  Works — The  Octagon  House — A  Comfortable 
Income — The  Pleasures  of  Property — A  Haunted  House — Apple- Stealing 
— "  Departed  Joys  and  Stomach- Aches  " — The  Jackson  Monument — The 
Tragedy  of  the  Decatur  House— A  Fatal  Duel— The  Stockton- Sickles 
House — A  Spot  of  Frightful  Interest — The  Club-House — Assassination 
of  Mr.  Seward — Scenes  of  Festivity — The  Madison  House — Mrs.  Madi- 
son's Popularity — Her  Turbans  and  Her  Snuff— The  Exploit  of  Commo- 
dore Welkes — Arlington  Hotel — The  House  of  Charles  Sumner — Corco- 
ran Castle — The  Finest  Picture- Gallery  in  America — Powers'  Greek 
Slave — "Maggie  Beck" — Kalaroma — During  the  War — Rock  Creek — 
The  Romantic  Story  of  Mr.  Barlow's  Niece — Francis  P.  Blair — Doddington 
House — The  Brother  of  Lord  Ellenborough — Forgetting  His  Own  Name 
— Locking  Up  a  Wife — The  "  Ten  Buildings  " — The  Retreat  of  Louis 
Phillippe — Old  Capitol  Prison — The  Temporary  Capitol — The  Deeds  of 
Ann  Royal  and  Sally  Brass — "  Paul  Pry  " — Blackmailing — Feared  by  all 
Mankind — An  Unpleasant  Sort  of  Woman — Arrested  on  Suspicion — A 
Small  American  Bastile — Where  Wirz  was  Hung. 


rip  HE  oldest  home  in  Washington  is  the  cottage  of  Da- 
-«-    vid  Burns. 

You  remember  him,  he  was  Washington's  "  obstinate 
Mr.  Burns."  Well,  he  owned  nearly  the  entire  site  of 
the  future  Federal  city,  an  estate  which  had  descended 


550  TEN   TEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

to  him,  through  several  generations  of  Scottish  ancestors. 
It  was  perfectly  human  and  right  that  he  should  make 
the  most  and  best  of  his  precious  paternal  acres.  Long 
before  quarrelling  Congresses  had  even  thought  of  the 
District  of  Columbia  as  a  site  to  contend  over  as  the  fu- 
ture Capitol,  the  cottage  of  David  Burns  had  gathered 
on  its  lowly  roof  the  moss  of  time. 

After  the  lapse  of  nearly  a  century  it  stands  to-day  as 
it  stood  then,  only  the  moss  on  its  roof  is  deeper,  and  the 
trees  which  arch  above  it,  cast  a  longer  and  deeper 
shadow.  It  was  a  .mansion  in  that  day  of  small  begin- 
nings. Yet  it  is  but  a  low,  sharp-roofed  cottage,  one 
story  high,  with  a  garret;  its  doors  facing  north  and 
south,  one  opening  upon  the  river,  with  no  steps,  but  one 
broad  flag-stone,  now  settled  deep  within  its  grassy  bor- 
ders. Besides  the  garret,  there  cannot  be  more  than  four 
rooms  in  the  house;  a  dining-room,  sitting-room,  and  two 
sleeping-rooms ;  the  kitchen,  after  the  Maryland  and  Vir- 
ginia fashion  of  the  present  day,  was  probably  a  detached 
building.  The  farm-house  no  doubt  equalled  its  average 
neighbors,  scattered  miles  apart  across  the  wide  domain 
of  open  country. 

Before  Washington  came  to  negotiate  for  the  future 
site  of  the  Federal  city,  the  society  of  Davy  Burns  was 
probably  composed  of  plain  farmer  folk  like  himself.  It 
was  at  a  later  time,  when  the  farmer  was  transformed 
into  a  millionaire,  and  his  only  daughter  had  grown  into 
the  fairest  belle  and  richest  heiress  in  all  the  country 
round,  that  the  long,  low  rooms  of  the  one-story  farm- 
house were  filled  with  the  most  illustrious  men  of  their 
generation. 

At  the  time  of  the  sale  of  his  estate  to  President  Wash- 


THE  NATIONAL  CAPITOL, 

As  seen  from  Peuusjlvaaia  Aveuuo. 


THE  VAN  NESS  MANSION,  AND  DAVY  BURNS'  COTTAGE. 


OLD  HOMES  AND  HAUNTS.  551 

ington,  David  Burns'  only  daughter  was  not  more  than 
twelve  or  thirteen  years  of  age. 

With  a  prescience  of  her  future  lot,  he  proceeded  to 
give  her  every  advantage  of  education  and  society  at 
that  period  accessible  to  a  gentlewoman  of  fortune.  The 
Rector  of  St.  John's  Church,  who  preached  her  funeral 
sermon  in  1832,  said :  "  She  was  placed  by  her  parents 
in  the  family  of  Luther  Martin,  Esq.,  of  Baltimore,  who 
was  then  at  the  height  of  his  fame  as  the  most  distin- 
guished jurist  and  advocate  in  the  State  of  Maryland, 
and  with  his  daughters  and  family  she  had  the  best  op- 
portunity of  education-  and  society." 

At  eighteen,  Marcia  Burns  returned  to  the  home  of 
her  parents  —  the  lowly  farm-house  on  the  banks  of  the 
Potomac.  Then,  and  at  a  later  day,  when  the  flush  and 
enchantment  of  youth  had  fled,  the  vision  of  Marcia 
Burns  is  altogether  lovely.  Beside  the  attractions  of 
fortune,  she  seemed  to  possess  in  an  eminent  degree  the 
highest  qualities  of  the  feminine  nature.  It  was  of 
Marcia  Burns  that  Horatio  Gre enough  wrote : 

"  '  Mid  rank  and  wealth  and  worldly  pride, 
From  every  snare  she  turned  aside. 

She  sought  the  low,  the  humble  shed, 
Where  gaunt  disease  and  famine  tread  ; 
And  from  that  time,  in  youthful  pride, 
She  stood  Van  Ness's  blooming  bride, 
No  day  her  blameless  head  o'erpast, 
But  saw  her  dearer  than  the  last." 

The  return  of  the  only  child  and  heiress  of  David 
Burns,  in  the  first  beauty  of  young  womanhood,  soon 


552  TEN   YEARS    IN    WASHINGTON. 

filled  the  paternal  cottage  with  illustrious  society,  and 
with  many  suitors  for  her  hand  and  heart.  The  Keys, 
the  Lloyds,  the  Peters,  the  Lows,  the  Tayloes,  the  Cal verts,, 
the  Carrols,  all  visited  here.  Washington,  Jefferson,  Hamil- 
ton, Burr,  with  many  other  famous  then,  not  forgotten  now, 
were  guests  at  the  Burns  cottage.  Thomas  Moore  was 
entertained  beneath  its  roof,  and  slept  in  one  of  the  little 
rooms  "off"  the  large  one  on  the  ground  floor. 

The  favored  suitor  was  John  P.  Van  Ness,  the  son  of 
Judge  Peter  Van  Ness  of  New  York,  celebrated  as  an 
anti-Federalist,  a  Revolutionary  officer,  and  a  supporter 
of  Aaron  Burr  against  the  Clinton  and  Livingston  feud. 

When  John  Van  Ness  wooed  and  won  Marcia  Burns, 
he  was  thirty  years  of  age,  a  Member  of  Congress  from 
New  York,  "well-fed,  well-bred,  well-read,"  elegant,  pop- 
ular and  handsome  enough  to  win  his  way  to  any  maid- 
en's heart,  unassisted  by  the  accessories  of  fortune,  which, 
in  addition,  were  bountifully  his.  In  Gilbert  Stuart's  pic- 
ture we  see  him  with  powdered  wig  and  toupee,  lightrbrown 
hair  and  side  whiskers,  perceptive  forehead,  aquiline  nose, 
finely-curved  lips  and  chin,  a  small  mouth,  with  clear,  hazel 
eyes,  which  could  look  their  way  straight  to  many  hearts. 

The  portrait  of  the  heiress  of  David  Burns  may  be 
seen  to-day  in  Washington,  not  in  any  hall  of  wealth  or 
fashion,  but  in  the  Orphan  Asylum,  which  she  founded 
and  endowed,  to  whose  children  she  was  a  mother.  It 
looks  down  upon  us,  a  Madonna  face,  with  intellectual, 
spiritual  brow,  dewy  eyes,  and  a  tender  mouth. 

Marcia  Burns  married  John  P.  Van  Ness  at  the  age  of 
twenty.  Her  only  brother  dying  in  early  youth,  she  in- 
herited the  whole  of  her  father's  vast  estate.  For  a  few 
years  after  her  marriage  she  lived  at  the  old  cottage. 


THE  HOUSE  OF  MARCIA  BURNS.          553 

Her  husband  then  built  a  two-story  house  on  the  corner 
of  Twelfth  and  D  streets.  Later,  he  began  the  house, 
which,  still  standing  in  the  centre  of  Mansion  Square,  is  one 
of  the  most  unique  of  all  the  historic  houses  of  Washing- 
ton. It  was  designed,  as  were  so  many  famous  Wash- 
ington houses,  by  Latrobe,  and  cost  between  $50,000  and 
$60,000  more  than  half  a  century  ago.  Its  marble  man- 
tel-pieces, wrought  in  Italy,  with  their  sculptured  Loves 
and  Vestas,  still  remain,  models  of  exquisite  art.  It  is 
finished  with  costly  woods,  and  about  its  door-knobs  are 
set  tiles  inlaid  with  Mosaics.  Its  great  portico,  facing 
north,  is  modelled  after  that  of  the  President's  house. 
This  stately  brick  mansion,  amid  the  trees,  standing  a 
few  rods  back  from  the  Burns'  cottage,  presents  to  it  an 
absolute  contrast. 

This  costly  home  was  ready  for  the  family  when  the 
only  daughter  and  child  of  General  and  Mrs.  Van  Ness 
returned,  in  1820,  from  school  in  Philadelphia.  Thither 
Marcia  Burns  brought  her  daughter.  The  bond  between 
the  two  is  said  to  have  been  more  intimate  and  profound 
than  that  of  simply  mother  and  daughter.  The  daugh- 
ter was  the  cherished  companion  of  the  mother,  who 
cultivated  an  intelligent  interest  in  public  affairs,  who 
loved  poetry,  and  wrote  it,  and  who,  amid  all  the  pomp 
of  wealth  and  state,  never  forgot,  or  allowed  her  child  to 
forget,  that  the  fashion  of  this  world  passe th  away. 

Ann  Elbertina  Van  Ness  married  Arthur  Middleton  of 
South  Carolina,  son  of  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence.  But,  in  November,  1822,  in  less  than 
two  years  from  her  return  from  school,  this  only  child, 
this  youthful  bride,  this  heiress  of  untold  wealth,  with 
her  babe  in  her  arms,  was  carried  to  the  grave. 


554  TEN  TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

From  that  hour,  her  mother,  Marcia  Burns,  who,  in  the 
world,  had  never  been  of  it,  renounced  its  vanities  en- 
tirely. The  cottage  in  which  she  was  born,  in  which  her 
parents  lived  and  died,  nestling  under  the  patriarchal 
trees,  just  outside  the  windows  of  her  stately  home,  had 
ever  remained  the  object  of  her  veneration  and  affection. 
In  this  humble  dwelling,  over  whose  venerable  roof 
waved  the  branches  of  trees  planted  by  her  dear  parents, 
she  selected  a  secluded  apartment,  with  appropriate  ar- 
rangements for  solemn  meditation,  to  which  she  often 
retired,  and  spent  hours  in  quiet  solitude  and  holy 
communion. 

The  offering  to  God  which  she  made  beside  the  grave 
of  her  daughter,  was  the  City  Orphan  Asylum  of  Wash- 
ington. She  became  a  mother  to  the  children,  saved, 
sheltered,  and  trained  for  heaven  beneath  its  roof.  She 
did  not  wait  for  these  orphans  to  come  to  her  door. 
Night  and  day  she  sought  them  out.  In  her  portrait, 
still  hanging  in  this  asylum,  she  is  sitting  with  three  little 
girls,  clinging  to  her  for  protection,  one  with  its  head  in 
her  lap. 

Her  last  sickness  was  long  and  painful.  A  few  days 
before  her  death,  with  a  few  Christian  friends  gathered 
about  her  bed,  she  celebrated  the  holy  Sacrament ;  then, 
with  perfect  serenity,  awaited  the  final  call.  Her  last 
words  to  her  husband,  placing  her  hand  upon  his  head, 
were  :  "  Heaven  bless  and  protect  you.  Never  mind  me." 
She  died  September  9,  1832,  aged  fifty  years. 

She  was  the  first  American  woman  buried  with  public 
honors.  At  the  time  of  her  death,  General  Van  Ness  was 
Mayor  of  Washington.  Meetings  of  condolence  were  held 
by  citizens  in  different  places.  As  the  funeral  procession 


A   TRIBUTE    OF    ESTEEM.  555 

began  to  move,  a  committee  of  citizens  placed  a  second 
silver  plate  upon  her  coffin,  inscribed  : — 

"  The  Citizens  of  Washington,  in  testimony  of  their  veneration 
for  departed  worth,  dedicate  this  plate  to  the  memory  of  Marcia 
Van  Ness,  the  excellent  consort  of  D.  P.  Van  Ness.  If  piety, 
charity,  high  principle  and  exalted  worth  could  have  averted 
the  shafts  of  fate,  she  would  still  have  remained  among  us,  a 
bright  example  of  every  virtue.  The  hand  of  death  has  removed 
her  to  a  purer  and  happier  state  of  existence ;  and,  while  we 
lament  her  loss,  let  us  endeavor  to  emulate  her  virtues." 

The  procession  passed  between  the  little  girls  of  the 
Orphan  Asylum,  who  stood  in  lines,  till  the  coffin  was 
placed  at  the  door  of  the  vault,  when  they  came  forward, 
strewing  the  bier  with  branches  of  weeping- willows,  and 
singing  a  farewell  hymn. 

The  last  earthly  house  which  received  the  body  of 
Marcia  Burns  was  more  magnificent  than  any  she  had 
ever  inhabited.  Years  before,  General  Van  Ness  had 
reared  a  Mausoleum,  which  still  remains,  one  of  the  pur- 
est examples  of  monumental  art  on  this  continent.  It  is 
a  copy  of  the  Temple  of  Vesta,  and  could  not  be  built  at 
the  present  time  for  a  sum  less  than  thirty-four  or  thirty- 
five  thousand  dollars.  In  the  vault,  beneath  its  open 
dome,  Marcia  Burns  was  laid  beside  her  child.  This  mag- 
nificent temple  of  the  dead  was  recently  removed  and 
rebuilt,  precisely  as  it  was  in  the  Oak  Hill  Cemetery, 
Georgetown.  The  cells  of  its  deep  vault  now  hold  nearly 
all  of  the  dust  left  of  the  Burns  and  Van  Ness  alliance. 

General  Van  Ness  lived  to  the  period  of  the  Mexican 
war,  passing  away  at  the  age  of  seventy-six,  after  having 
enjoyed  every  honor  which  the  citizens  of  Washington 


556  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

could  bestow  upon  him.  He  sued  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  for  violating  its  contract  with  the  original 
proprietors  of  Washington  in  selling  to  private  purchasers 
lots  near  the  Mall.  Roger  B.  Taney  was  his  lawyer,  and 
yet  he  lost  his  suit.  He  gave  an  entertainment  to  Con- 
gress every  year  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  and  wonder- 
heads  declare  that  his  six  horses,  headless,  still  gallop 
around  the  Van  Ness  Mansion,  in  Mansion  square,  annu- 
ally, on  the  anniversary  of  that  event. 

Some  twenty-five  years  ago,  this  old  mansion  and  estate 
was  bought  by  its  present  proprietor,  Thomas  Green,  Esq., 
a  Virginia  gentleman.  The  last  time. that  it  came  prom- 
inently before  the  public,  was  during  the  assassination  con- 
spiracy, when  an  irresponsible  newspaper  sent  the  report 
flying,  that  its  great  wine-vault  was  to  have  been  used  as 
a  place  of  incarceration  for  Mr.  Lincoln,  before  he  was 
conveyed  across  the  river.  In  those  mad  days  no  mag- 
nate waited  for  proof,  and  the  result  was  that  Mr.  Green 
and  his  gentle  wife,  who, — as  her  husband  remarked — 
"  was  as  innocent  as  an  angel,"  were  shut  up  in  our  small 
bastile,  the  old  Capitol  prison.  Here  both  were  held  for 
more  than  thirty  days,  when  after  having  vindicated  their 
honor  beyond  the  possibility  of  reproach,  the  Govern- 
ment somewhat  ashamed  of  itself,  let  them  depart  to  the 
shelter  of  their  patriarchal  home. 

On  buying  the  estate,  Mr.  Green  with  that  veneration 
for  old,  sacred  associations  which  pre-eminently  marks 
the  Virginian, — instead  of  tearing  down  the  old  Burns' 
cottage  as  "  nothing  to  him "  or  as  a  blot  upon  his  fair 
estate,  went  immediately  to  work  to  preserve  it.  With- 
out changing  it  in  any  way,  he  re-roofed  it,  made  it  rain- 
proof, whitewashed  it,  and  left  it  with  its  trees  and  mem- 


THE  OLD  COTTAGE  OF  DAVID  BURNS.      557 

ories.  What  Mr.  Green  has  preserved,  let  not  the  Board 
of  Public  Works  destroy!  In  this  case,  gentlemen,  let 
your  "grade"  go — and  the  cottage  of  "the  obstinate  Mr. 
Burns,"  the  first  owner  of  this  great  Capital,  and  the  old- 
est house  in  it — remain. 

It  was  a  June  evening  that  we  last  passed  the  gate  and 
the  lodge  of  the  old  Van  Ness  estate,  at  the  foot  of  Sev- 
enteenth street.  The  high  brick-wall  which  shut  in  this 
historic  garden,  is  mantled  with  ivy  and  honeysuckle. 
Old  fruit  trees,  apple,  pear,  peach,  apricot,  plum,  cherry, 
nectarine,  and  fig  trees,  all  in  their  season,  lift  their 
crowns  of  fruitage  to  the  sun  within  these  old  walls. 
Following  a  winding  avenue,  we  pass  through  grounds 
above  which  gigantic  aspen,  maple,  walnut,  holly,  and 
yew  trees  cast  deep,  cool  shadows  in  the  hottest  summer 
days.  As  we  approach  the  house  we  see  that  the  drive  be- 
fore the  northern  portico  is  encircled  with  an  immense 
growth  of  box.  Before  the  low  windows  of  the  eastern 
drawing-room,  stretch  wide  parterres  of  roses  of  every 
known  variety.  In  June  it  is  literally  a  garden  of  roses — 
and  the  early  snow  falls  upon  them,  budding  and  blooming 
still  in  the  delicious  air.  Oranges  ripen  on  the  sunshiny 
lawn  which  surrounds  the  house,  and  masses  of  honey- 
suckle which  climb  the  balustrades  of  the  southern  portico 
pervade  the  air  with  sweetness,  acres  away. 

This  southern  portico  used  as  a  conservatory  in  the 
winter,  is  a  counterpart,  on  a  smaller  plan,  of  the  south 
veranda  of  the  President's  house.  It  has  the  same  out- 
look only  nearer  the  river.  To  the  right,  the  dome  of 
the  observatory  swells  into  the  blue  air,  and,  before  it,  the 
Potomac  runs  up  and  kisses  the  grasses  at  its  feet.  Lov- 
ers' walk,  shaded  by  murmuring  pines,  as  such  a  walk 


558  TE^   YEARS   IN  WASHINGTON. 


should  be,  .runs  on  through  the  grove  down  to  a  mimic 
lake,  where,  in  mid-water,  is  A  tiny  island  with  shadowy 
trees  and  restful  seats. 

I  stray  down  this  walk  witk  Alice,  —  golden-haired  and 
poet-eyed.  We  wander  across  under  the  patriarchal 
trees  and  come  out  on  the  rivei  ^ide  of  the  old  Burns 
cottage.  Its  sunken  door-stone,  its  antique  door-latch, 
its  minute  window-panes,  all  are  ju,st  the  same  as  when 
Marcia  Burns,  beautiful  and  young,  received  within  its 
walls  her  courtly  worshippers;  just  the  same  as  when 
Marcia  Burns,  smitten  and  childless,  kuelt  alone  by  its 
desolate  hearth,  to  commune  with  the  God  and  Father 
of  her  spirit,  and  to  dedicate  herself  to  His  service  for 
ever. 

Beside  us,  eight  lofty  Kentucky  coffee-trees  soar  palm- 
like  towards  the  sky.  Through  their  clustering  crowns 
the  full  moon  peers  down  upon  us  ;  upon  the  cottage,  so 
fraught  with  the  memories  of  buried  generations  ;  upon 
the  white  walls  of  the  mansion,  so  rich  in  recollections  of 
the  illustrious  dead  of  a  later  past,  —  and  she  transfig- 
ures both  cottage  and  hall  in  her  hallowing  radiance,  as, 
with  lingering  steps,  I  say  to  gentle  host  and  hostess,  and 
to  Alice,  —  golden-haired  and  poet-eyed,  —  "  Farewell." 

The  Octagon  House,  now  used  as  an  office  by  the  Navy 
Department,  stands  on  the  corner  of  Eighteenth  street 
and  New  York  avenue.  It  was  built  near  the  close  of 
the  last  century  by  Colonel  John  Tayloe,  one  of  the  most 
famous  men  of  his  time,  and  is  still  owned  by  his  descend- 
ents.  Colonel  Tayloe  was  a  friend  of  Washington,  who 
persuaded  him  to  invest  some  of  his  immense  fortune  in 
the  new  Federal  city.  He  was  educated  at  Cambridge, 


A  HAUNTED   HOUSE.  559 

England,  and  during  his  life  in  Washington,  four  of  his 
former  class-mates  were  sent  as  Ministers  to  the  United 
States. 

Colonel  Tayloe  had  an  income  of  seventy-five  thousand 
dollars  a  year.  He  had  an  immense  country  estate  at 
Mount  Airy,  Virginia,  and  both  there  and  in  Octagon 
House,  entertained  his  friends  in  princely  state.  He  kept 
race-horses,  and  expended  about  thirty-three  thousand 
dollars  every  year  in  new  purchases.  He  owned  five 
hundred  slaves,  built  brigs  and  schooners,  worked  iron- 
mines,  converted  the  iron  into  ploughshares, — and  all  was 
done  by  the  hands  of  his  own  subjects.  After  the  burning 
of  the  White  House,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Madison  lived  in  the 
Octagon  House  for  a  year,  and  held  these  elegant  draw- 
ing-rooms and  gave  costly  dinners.  The  Octagon  House 
has  long  had  the  reputation  of  being  haunted.  "  It  is  an 
authenticated  fact,  that  every  night,  at  the  same  hour,  all 
the  bells  would  ring  at  once.  One  gentleman,  dining 
with  Colonel  Tayloe,  when  this  mysterious  ringing  began, 
being  an  unbeliever  in  mysteries,  and  a  very  powerful 
man,  jumped  up  and  caught  the  bell  wires  in  his  hand, 
but  only  to  be  lifted  bodily  from  the  floor,  while  he  was 
unsuccessful  in  stopping  the  ringing.  Some  declare  that 
it  was  discovered,  after  a  time,  that  rats  were  the  ghosts 
who  rung  the  bells ;  others,  that  the  cause  was  never  dis- 
covered, and  that  finally  the  family,  to  secure  peace,  were 
compelled  to  take  the  bells  down  and  hang  them  in  dif- 
ferent fashion.  Among  other  remedies,  had  been  previ- 
ously tried  that  of  exorcism,  but  the  prayers  of  the  priest 
who  was  summoned  availed  nought." 

In  1805,  Washington  city  was  an  old  field,  covered 
everywhere  with  green  grass  and  many  original  trees  of 


560  TEN  TEAES   IN   WASHINGTON. 

the  forest  There  were  no  streets  made.  The  President's 
house  was  unfinished,  and  Lafayette  square,  opposite,  was 
still  called  the  "  Burns  Orchard."  One  corner  of  it  was 
used  as  a  burial-ground  of  St.  John's  Church.  Where 
General  Jackson's  statue  is  now  rearing  in  the  air  on  a 
frantic  horse,  then  stood  a  clump  of  cherry  trees,  under 
which  John  Gardner's  school-boys  used  to  make  them- 
selves sick  eating  green  cherries.  As  the  boys  of  this 
school  never  allowed  the  green  apples  or  any  other  fruit 
in  this  orchard  to  ripen,  and  for  that  reason  were  in  a 
perpetually  griped  condition  all  summer,  their  school- 
master, much  against  their  wishes,  and  that  of  the  militia 
who  paraded  under  the  trees,  obtained  permission  of  Pres- 
ident Jefferson  to  cut  the  orchard  down. 

As  an  open  "reservation,"  the  square  was  long  a  land- 
mark of  the  departed  joys  and  stomachaches  of  the  boys 
of  a  former  generation.  In  course  of  time  Dowing  laid 
out  the  graceful  walks  and  grassy  plats  which  make  it 
now  a  perfect  bijou  of  beauty.  He  planted  the  trees 
which  to-day  arch  high  in  mid-air,  and  spread  so  deep 
and  grateful  a  shade  above  the  weary  multitudes  who 
seek  rest  and  a  touch  of  nature's  healing  upon  its  way- 
side seats.  It  is  altogether  beautiful  and  soul  and  sense-' 
reviving,  in  the  spring,  when  its  many-flowering  shrubs 
pervade  the  air  with  fragrance,  and  no  less  delicious  in  the 
autumn,  when  it  flames  a  mosaic  of  gorgeous  landscape 
set  in  the  dusty  square,  its  many  tinted  leaves  warm  and 
red  as  gems  raining  about  your  feet. 

August  11,  1848,  a  resolution  of  Congress  authorized 
the  Jackson  Monument  Committee  to  receive  the  brass 
guns  captured  by  Jackson  at  Pensacola,  to  be  used  as 
material  for  the  construction  of  a  monument  to  that  dis- 


A  SCHOOL-BOY'S  PARADISE.  561 

tinguished  patriot.  Clark  Mills  was  appointed  to  execute 
the  statue.  President  Fillmore  chose  its  site  in  the  centre 
of  the  square,  opposite  the  President's  House,  where  it  was 
inaugurated  January  8, 1853,  the  anniversary  of  Jackson's 
victory  at  New  Orleans,  in  1815.  As  I  am  inadequate  to 
describe  such  a  work  of  art,  I  give  the  guide-book  de- 
scription : — 

"  General  Jackson  is  represented  in  the  exact  military  costume 
worn  by  him,  with  cocked-hat  in  hand,  saluting  his  troops.  The 
charger,  a  noble  specimen  of  the  animal,  with  all  the  fire  and 
spirit  of  a  Bucephalus,  is  in  a  rearing  posture,  poised  upon  his 
hind  feet,  with  no  other  stay  than  the  balance  of  gravity,  and 
the  bolts  pinning  the  feet  to  the  pedestal.  The  work  is  colossal, 
the  figure  of  Jackson  being  eight  feet  in  height,  and  that  of  the 
horse  in  proportion.  The  whole  stands  upon  a  pyramidal  pedes- 
tal of  white  marble,  seven  feet  in  height,  at  the  base  of  which 
are  planted  four  brass  six-pound  guns,  taken  by  the  hero  at  New 
Orleans.  The  cost  of  the  statue  to  the  Government,  including 
the  pedestal  and  iron  railing,  was  $28,500." 

Around  this  peaceful  spot,  where  the  militia  beat  their 
reveille,  and  the  school-boys  munched  green  apples  and 
cherries,  and  gathered  nuts  in  days  of  yore,  human 
life  in  all  its  passion  of  pleasure,  tragedy  and  pain,  now 
pressed  close.  One  of  the  saddest  tragedies  of  the 
square  is  associated  with  the  Decatur  House.  It  is  said 
that  three  powers  rule  the  world — Intellect,  Wealth,  and 
Fame.  Wearing  this  triple  crown,  Stephen  Decatur  came 
home  to  the  wife  whom  he  worshipped,  saying :  "  I  have 
gained  a  small  sprig  of  laurel,  which  I  hasten  to  lay  at 
your  feet."  He  bought  the  lot  on  the  corner  of  Six- 
teenth and  H  streets,  and  employed  Latrobe  to  design  a 
commodious  and  elegant  mansion.  In  this  house  the 

36 


562  TEN   YEAKS  IN   WASHINGTON. 

home-life  of  Decatur  begun  with  the  most  dazzling  aug- 
uries. Its  walls  were  hung  with  the  trophies  of  his 
glory :  the  sword  presented  by  Congress  for  burning  the 
Philadelphia ;  another  from  Congress  for  the  attack  on 
Tripoli ;  a  medal  from  Congress  for  the  capture  of  the 
Macedonian;  a  box  containing  the  freedom  of  New  York ; 
the  medal  of  the  Order  of  Cincinnati ;  swords  from  the 
States  of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  and  the  City  of 
Philadelphia;  and  services  of  plate  from  the  cities  of 
Baltimore  and  Philadelphia.  All  these  were  but  leaves 
on  the  sprig  of  laurel  which  he  laid  at  the  feet  of  the 
beloved  one. 

Mrs.  Decatur  was  accomplished,  intellectual,  and  pas- 
sionately devoted  to  her  heroic  husband.  Not  yet  forty-two 
years  of  age,  he  had  scaled  the  very  summit  of  fame,  and 
already  rested  after  the  toilsome  ascent.  His  mornings 
were  given  to  the  fulfilment  of  his  duties  as  Navy  Com- 
missioner, and  his  leisure  was  spent  with  the  best  in  the 
society  of  Washington,  made  up  of  the  highest  in  the 
land  for  station,  character,  and  intelligence. 

The  salon  of  Mrs.  Decatur,  which,  to-day,  is  larger 
than  can  be  found  in  any  other  private  house  in  Wash- 
ington, was  a  focal  point  for  all  that  was  dazzling  in  the 
social  life  of  the  capital.  There  are  those  still  living 
who  remember  the  brilliant  assembly  gathered  here  only 
the  night  before  his  death.  Mrs.  Decatur,  who  had  no 
prescience  of  the  anguish  awaiting  her,  at  the  request  of 
friends,  played  on  the  harp,  on  which  she  was  a  skilful 
performer.  Commodore  Decatur,  conscious  of  the  por- 
tentous appointment  which  awaited  him  the  coming  morn- 
ing, abated  not  one  jot  of  the  wonted  charm  of  his  manner, 
staying  in  the  parlors  till  the  last  guest  had  gone. 


THE  DECATUR  TRAGEDY.  563 

At  dawn  of  the  next  day  he  arose,  left  the  sleeping 
wife  and  household,  crossed  Lafayette  Square,  walked  to 
Beule's  Tavern,  near  the  Capitol,  breakfasted,  proceeded 
to  Bladensburg,  where  the  duel  was  fought  at  nine  o'clock. 
Mortally  wounded,  he  was  brought  back  to  his  happy 
home,  where  he  died  the  night  of  the  same  day.  He 
tried  to  avert  the  duel,  saying  to  Commodore  Barron : 
"  I  have  not  challenged  you,  nor  do  I  intend  to  challenge 
you ;  your  life  depends  on  yourself." 

He  was  followed  to  the  grave  by  the  President  of  the 
United  States  and  the  most  illustrious  men  of  his  time. 
"  The  same  cannon  which  had  so  often  announced  the 
splendid  achievements  of  Decatur  now  marked  the  pe- 
riods in  bearing  him  to  the  tomb.  Their  reverberating 
thunder  mournfully  echoed  through  the  metropolis,  and 
also  vibrated  through  a  heart  tortured  to  agony."  A 
vast  concourse  of  citizens,  marching  to  a  funeral  dirge, 
followed  the  dead  hero  to  Kalorama. 

Mrs.  Decatur,  within  the  walls  of  her  home,  for  three 
years  shut  herself  away  from  all  the  world.  Afterwards 
the  Decatur  house  was  rented  to  Edward  Livingston, 
then  Secretary-of-State.  Here  Cora  Livingston  was  mar- 
ried to  Dr.  Barton,  who  is  remembered  not  only  as  a 
diplomat,  but  as  the  editor  of  an  extensive  and  valuable 
collection  of  Shakespeare's  works.  Here  Sir  Charles 
Vaughan,  the  British  Ambassador,  lived,  and  by  his  wit 
and  affable  manners  and  hospitality,  made  the  house 
again  a  centre  of  elegant  society.  Martin  Van  Buren, 
while  Secretary-of-State,  occupied  the  Decatur  House. 
The  brothers  King,  both  Members  of  Congress  from  New 
York,  lived  here.  One  was  the  father  of  the  much-ad- 
mired Mrs.  Bancroft  Davis,  a  portion  of  whose  girlhood 


564  TEN   TEAES   IN  WASHINGTON. 

was  passed  under  its  roof.  Mr.  Orr,  while  Speaker  of 
the  House,  was  its  tenant,  and  dispensed  hospitalities  to 
thousands  in  its  grand  salon.  From  Madison  to  Grant, 
every  President  has  been  entertained  within  its  walls. 

Madame  de  Stael  says  :  "  The  homes  and  haunts  of 
the  great  ever  bear  impress  of  their  individuality." 
Jean  Paul  1-ichter  declares:  "No  thought  is  lost."  If 
this  be  true,  how  affluent  of  eloquence,  wit  and  mirth 
these  historic  halls  must  be !  They  are  ready  to  re- 
vive more  than  the  splendor  of  past  days.  For  a  num- 
ber of  years  the  house,  rented  to  the  Government,  has 
been  used  for  offices.  But  within  twelve  months  it  has 
been  purchased  by  General  Edward  Fitzgerald  Beale, 
who  has  rehabilitated  it,  without  remodelling  it,  for  his 
own  family  residence.  The  ample  halls  and  grand  sa- 
lon remain  unchanged  in  proportions,  while  fresh  frescoes, 
historic  devices,  French  windows  and  marble  vestibule, 
give  to  the  antique  mansion  the  aspect  of  modern  ele- 
gance 

General  Beale  is  the  grandson  of  Commodore  Thomas 
Truxton,  one  of  the  first  six  captains  appointed  by  Gen- 
eral Washington  in  the  early  navy  to  guard  the  com- 
merce of  the  United  States.  Commodore  Decatur  was  a 
favorite  midshipman  and  lieutenant  under  Truxton ;  and 
the  grandson  of  his  early  commander,  in  this  home  of 
Decatur's  heart,  is  now  preserving  every  possible  souve- 
nir of  the  sea.  The  Decatur  mansion  has  passed  into 
fitting  hands.  Its  present  owner  made  his  gallant  record 
under  Commodore  Stockton,  and,  in  imperilling  his  life 
for  others,  has  maintained  the  illustrious  escutcheon 
transmitted  him  by  his  ancestors.  When  the  gay  season 
begins,  light  and  music,  warmth  and  cheer,  wisdom, 


THE    STOCKTON-SICKLES    HOUSE.  565 

beauty  and  grace  will  again  make  these  old  halls  glad. 
"  Mernnon-like,  the  old  walls  will  again  give  forth  sweet 
sounds."  A  new  generation  will  repeat  the  festivities  of 
the  generation  gone  to  dust. 

A  few  rods  further  on  we  came  to  the  famous  Stockton- 
Sickles  House.  Just  now  it  shrinks,  shabby  and  small,  be- 
low its  lofty  modern  neighbors.  It  is  a  white  stuccoed 
house,  two  stories,  with  basement  and  attic,  with  high 
steps  and  square  central  hall,  after  the  fashion  of  old 
times.  It  was  called  the  Stockton  House  because  Purser 
Stockton,  who  married  a  relative  of  Commodore  Decatur, 
owned  and  lived  in  it.  Afterwards,  it  was  occupied  by 
Levi  Woodbury,  the  father  of  Mrs.  Montgomery  Blair, 
who  lived  here  both  while  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and 
of  the  Navy.  It  was  also  rented  by  Mr.  Southard,  of 
Georgia,  the  father  of  Mrs.  Ogden  Hoffman.  When  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Sickles  lived  in  it,  it  is  said  that  the  trees  in 
Lafayette  square  were  so  small  that  the  waving  of  a  hand- 
kerchief from  one  of  the  windows  could  be  distinctly  seen 
at  the  club  house  opposite,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
square.  This  was  the  signal  used  between  the  first  be- 
trayed, then  tempted  and  ruined  wife,  and  the  man  of 
the  world,  to  whom  seduction  was  at  once  a  pastime  and 
a  profession. 

The  trunk  of  the  tree  against  which  Key  fell  when 
shot  by  Sickles,  may  still  be  seen  near  the  corner  of  Mad- 
ison place  and  Pennsylvania  avenue. 

A  few  steps  further  on,  in  the  middle  of  the  block, 
stands  the  famous  club-house  which  has  witnessed  more 
of  the  vicissitudes  and  tragedy  of  human  life  than  any 
other  house  on  the  square,  excepting,  perhaps,  the  White 
House.  The  Club-House  is  a  large,  square,  three-storied 


566  TEN  TEABS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

red  brick  house,  built  for  his  own  use  by  Commodore 
Rogers,  of  the  Navy.  After  his  death,  it  became  a  fash- 
ionable boarding-house,  then  a  club-house.  To  one  of 
its  rooms  Barton  Key  was  borne  after  being  wounded  by 
Sickles.  While  Secretary-of-State,  Mr.  Seward  occupied 
the  house  for  eight  years,  and  during  that  time  it  was  the 
centre  of  most  elegant  hospitality.  In  the  assassination 
of  Mr.  Seward,  it  witnessed  its  crowning  tragedy.  In  its 
rooms  Mr.  Seward  and  his  son  languished  for  months, 
while  slowly  recovering  from  the  almost  death-blows 
dealt  by  Payne. 

After  their  recovery,  the  lovely  and  only  daughter  of 
Mr.  Seward  here  slowly  faded  from  earth.  This  young 
lady  was,  in  a  very  remarkable  degree,  the  chosen  com- 
panion and  confidante  of  her  father.  She  not  only  sym- 
pathized profoundly  in  his  pursuits,  she  shared  them  with 
him.  I  believe  she  witnessed,  with  unavailing  cries,  the 
attempted  assassination  of  her  father.  At  least,  she 
never  recovered  from  the  shock  received  at  that  time. 
With  her,  passed  from  earth  one  of  the  loveliest  spirits 
which  ever  shed  its  pure  light  upon  the  social  life  of  the 
Capital.  Her  death  left  Mr.  Seward  wifeless  and  daugh- 
terless.  With  everything  to  live  for,  she  met  death  with 
perfect  faith  and  resignation.  Her  beautiful  life,  with 
her  triumphant  passage  through  death  to  a  life  still  more 
perfect,  remained  with  him  to  his  last  moment  the  most 
precious  memory  of  her  illustrious  father. 

With  all  its  burden  of  tragedy  and  pathetic  death, 
with  the  departure  of  the  Sewards,  the  old  house  did  not 
take  on  the  shadow  of  gloom.  Its  parlors  never  witnessed 
gayer  or  more  crowded  assemblies  than  thronged  them 
the  next  winter,  when  occupied  by  General  Belknap,  the 


THE   CLUB-HOUSE.  567 

Secretary-of-War.  This  was  but  for  a  single  season. 
Another  winter  dropped  its  earliest  snows  on  the  new- 
made  grave  of  the  young  wife  and  mother,  the  memory 
of  whose  gentle  face  and  graceful  presence  and  tender 
spirit,  will  only  fade  from  the  Capital  with  the  present 
generation.  It  was  the  last  flaming  up  of  festivity  in 
the  old  house.  It  has  never  been  gay  since  Mrs.  Belknap 
died. 

The  next  year  it  waned  into  a  boarding-house.  Even 
that  was  not  successful.  People  of  sensibility  do  not 
wish  even  to  board  in  a  house  so  haunted  with  tragic 
memories  of  human  lives.  The  house  is  now  used  for 
Government  purposes.  Its  site  is  so  superlative  ;  central 
to  the  most  interesting  objects  of  Washington,  and  facing 
the  .waving  sea  of  summer-green  in  Lafayette  square. 
In  the  march  of  change  its  place  will  soon  be  filled  by 
some  soaring  Mansard  mansion  of  the  future.  But  when 
every  brick  has  vanished,  the  memories  of  the  old  club- 
house and  Seward  mansion  will  survive  while  any  chron- 
icle of  Washington  endures. 

Next  to  it  stands  the  house  of  Mr.  Benjamin  Ogle 
Tayloe,  a  descendant  of  Mr.  Tayloe,  of  Octagon  House 
memory.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tayloe  have  occupied  this  stately 
house  for  many  years.  The  reminiscences  of  Washington 
published  by  Mr.  Tayloe  for  private  circulation  are 
among  the  most  entertaining  records  ever  written  of  the 
Capital. 

Next  to  the  Tayloe  House,  on  the  corner  of  Fifteenth 
and  II  street,  stands  the  Madison  House,  in  which,  as  a 
widow,  Mrs.  Madison  so  long  held  her  court.  No  eminent 
man  retired  from  service  of  the  state  ever  had  more  pub- 
lic recognition  and  honor  bestowed  upon  him  by  the 


568  TEN   YEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

Government  he  had  served  than  did  this  popular  and 
ever-beloved  woman.  On  New  Year's  day,  after  paying 
their  respects  to  the  President,  all  the  high  officers  of  the 
Government  always  adjourned  to  the  house  of  Mrs.  Mad- 
ison, to  pay  their  respects  to  her.  In  her  drawing-room 
political  foes  met  on  equal  ground,  and  for  the  time,  pub- 
lic and  private  animosities  were  forgotten  or  ignored. 

"Never"  says  "Uncle  Paul"  her  colored  servant,  who 
had  lived  with  her  from  boyhood,  and  who  still  lives, 
"never  was  a  more  gracefuller  lady  in  a  drawing-room. 
We  always  had  our  Wednesday-evening  receptions  in  the 
old  Madison  House,  and  we  had  them  in  style."  Mrs. 
Madison's  turbans  are  as  famous  in  Washington  to-day 
as  her  snuff  box.  It  is  said  that  she  expended  $1,000  a 
year  in  turbans.  She  wore  one  as  long  as  she  lived — long 
after  it  had  ceased  to  be  fashionable.  "  These  turbans  were 
made  of  the  finest  materials  and  trimmed  to  match  her 
various  dresses."  Uncle  Paul  tells  of  one  of  her  dresses 
of  purple  velvet  with  a  long  train  trimmed  with  wide 
gold-lace  with  which  she  wore  a  turban  trimmed  with 
gold-lace  and  a  pair  of  gold  shoes.  With  a  white  satin 
dress,  she  wore  a  turban  spangled  with  silver,  and  silver 
shoes."  She  sent  to  Paris  for  all  her  grand  costumes. 
Her  tea-parties  and  her  "loo"  parties  are  still  dwelt 
upon  with  loving  accents  by  her  admiring  contemporaries 
who  still  linger  on  the  borders  of  a  later  generation. 

After  the  death  of  Mrs.  Madison,  her  house  was  pur- 
chased and  occupied  for  many  years  by  Commodore 
Wilkes,  who  captured  Mason  and  Slid  ell.  It  still  stands 
in  perfect  preservation  and  is  rented  year  by  year  to 
chance  tenants.  Two  years  ago,  it  was  occupied  by  the 
Secretary-of-War  and  its  drawing-rooms  again  thronged 
with  brilliant  crowds. 


CORCORAN    CASTLE.  569 

On  an  opposite  comer  facing  Vermont  avenue  we  see 
the  brown  walls,  floating  flag  and  gay  equipages  of  Ar- 
lington Hotel.  Beside  it,  on  the  corner,  is  the  red-brick 
house  with  white  shades,  and  Mansard  roof,  where,  amid 
rare  pictures,  books,  works  of  art,  and  choice  friends, 
lives  Charles  Sumner. 

A  few  rods  further  on,  on  the  corner  of  H  and  Six- 
teenth streets,  facing  Lafayette  square  and  peering  out 
toward  the  old  Decatur  mansion,  we  came  to  "  Corcoran 
Castle."  It  is  an  imposing  house,  built  of  red-brick  with 
brown  facings,  divided  from  the  street  by  an  iron  railing, 
painted  green,  tipped  with  gilt,  with  an  immense  garden 
at  the  back,  covering  an  entire  square.  The  house  is  now 
owned  and  has  been  greatly  beautified  by  W.  W.  Corco- 
ran, the  famous  Washington  banker,  but  has  had  many 
other  occupants.  It  was  once  owned  by  Daniel  Webster 
to  whom  it  was  presented  by  leaders  of  the  party  whom 
he  had  served.  Great  astonishment  was  expressed  when 
he  afterwards  sold  it.  But  as  Daniel  Webster  was  ever 
an  impecunious  man,  he  probably  was  compelled  to  part 
with  his  palace  as  Sheridan  was  so  often  compelled  to  part 
with  his. 

Before  and  during  the  Mexican  war,  the  British  Minis- 
ter, Mr.  Packingham  resided  in  it,  kept  open  house  and 
made  his  parlors  the  rendezvous  of  the  young  people.  A 
lady  tells  "of  the  young  officers  she  saw  taking  part  in 
those  brilliant  life-pictures,  who  in  a  few  short  weeks 
were  lying  with  rigid,  upturned  faces,  on  Mexican  battle- 
fields." The  house  was  at  one  time  occupied  by  Gen- 
eral Gratios,  whose  daughter  married  Count  Montholon. 
During  the  war,  when  Mr.  Corcoran  resided  abroad,  he 
gave  his  house  in  charge  of  the  successive  French  Minis- 


570  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

ters.  During  that  time  Madame  de  Montholon  came  back 
to  the  former  home  of  her  father.  Within,  the  house  is 
a  delight  to  the  eyes.  Its  picture-gallery  is  one  of  the 
finest  in  America,  and  holds  amid  many  other  treasures 
of  art,  Powers'  Greek  Slave.  The  whole  house  is  a  gal- 
lery of  costly  furniture  and  works  of  art. 

In  this  home  of  grace,  "  Maggie  Beck  "  a  Kentucky 
~belle  of  three  seasons  ago,  who  married  a  nephew  of  Mr. 
Corcoran, "received"  her  friends  for  the  last  time.  The 
bride  of  a  month,  she  was  already  the  bride  of  death, 
and  in  her  marriage  robe,  and  veil  and  gleaming  jewels, 
white,  cold,  and  silent,  she  received  the  tears  and  lamen- 
tations poured  upon  her  by  agonized  hearts.  After  an 
absence  of  years,  hither  Mr.  Corcoran  bore  the  dead 
body  of  his  only  child,  and  here,  widowed  and  child- 
less, shut  himself  in  alone  with  his  dead.  The  children 
of  this  daughter  now  make  music  in  these  stately  halls. 
Age  and  childhood  make  the  family  life  of  Corcoran 
Castle. 

A  high  brick  wall  shuts  in  this  garden  from  the  city. 
Its  inner  side  is  completely  hung  with  ivy.  Immense  par- 
terres of  roses  and  flowers  of  every  tint,  conservatories, 
a  croquet-ground,  rustic  summer-houses,  fountains,  a  fish- 
pond, forest  trees  shading  a  closely-shorn  lawn,  all  these 
make  a  garden  perfect  in  seclusion  and  beauty  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  Capital. 

One  of  the  most  famous  of  suburban  Washington 
haunts  is  Kalorama,  literally  like  Bellevue — "beautiful 
view*."  The  ruins  of  Kalorama  stand  on  a  forest-shaded 
slope,  a  little  more  than  a  mile,  perhaps,  from  the  Presi- 
dent's house.  From  Twenty-first  street  it  is  approached 
by  an  avenue  planted  closely  on  either  side  by  locust 


THE   RUINS    OF   EALORAMA.  571 

trees.  Under  their  green  arch  the  titled  and  famous  of 
an  earlier  generation  passed ;  but  in  our  own  memory  it 
is  associated  with  the  pestilence-laden  ambulance,  for 
during  the  war  beautiful  Kalorama  was  a  small-pox  hos- 
pital. 

Below  Kalorama,  Rock  Creek  winds  its  shining  thread 
between  the  hills.  Looking  up  the  creek,  we  see  grassy 
glades,  along  which  cattle  feed,  and  a  picturesque  valley 
walled  by  embowering  woods.  Climbing  a  green,  tree- 
shaded  slope,  we  reach  a  plateau  from  which  we  look 
down  upon  two  cities,  Rock  Creek  still  winding  its  silvery 
thread  between.  Opposite  is  Analoston  Island,  beyond 
the  Virginia  shore,  and  Arlington  House  peering  through 
the  trees  of  its  crowning  hill. 

To  the  left  lies  Washington,  guarded  by  the  Capitol ; 
before  us,  crumbling  amid  its  guardian  oaks,  the  ruins  of 
Kalorama.  It  was  built  by  Joel  Barlow,  once  of  "  Co- 
lumbiad  "  fame,  in  1805.  After  spending  several  years 
abroad,  where  he  espoused  the  cause  of  the  French  Re- 
public, he  returned  to  his  own  country  and  built  a  castle 
for  himself  overlooking  its  Capital.  Before  this,  his  "  Co- 
lumbiad  "  had  been  published  with  fine  engravings,  whose 
execution  was  superintended  by  Robert  Fulton.  On  this 
poem  he  had  spent  the. labor  of  the  best  years  of  his  life; 
He  believed  without  a  doubt  that  it  would  be  the  national 
poem  of  the  future.  A  copy  of  it  graced  every  drawing- 
room.  In  wrhat  drawing-room  is  it  visible  now  !  Alas  ! 
for  "  Fame  !  " 

Joel  Barlow  and  Robert  Fulton  were  intimate  friends. 
In  1810  Fulton  visited  Kalorama,  and  it  is  declared  that 
some  of  his  first  ventures  in  navigation  were  launched 
upon  Rock  Creek.  History  records  that  Fulton  tested  his 


572  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

torpedoes  during  this  visit  to  Washington,  and  persuaded 
Congress  to  consider  his  navigation  schemes.  Mr.  Bar- 
low w'ent  to  France  as  American  Minister  in  1812.  He 
was  taken  ill  while  on  his  way  to  meet  Napoleon,  who 
had  invited  the  American  Minister  to  an  interview  with 
him  ,at  Wilna.  Mr.  Barlow  died  at  Cracow,  in  Poland, 
where  he  solaced  his  death-bed  by  dictating  a  poem  full 
of  withering  expression  of  resentment  toward  Napoleon 
for  the  hopes  he  had  disappointed. 

Mr.  Barlow  bequeathed  Kalorama  to  his  niece  Mrs. 
Bomford.  A  romantic  story  is  told  of  this  lady.  While 
with  her  first  husband  (whose  name  has  deservedly  per- 
ished) on  the  frontier,  he  being  an  officer  in  the  United 
States  Army,  she  was  captured  by  Indians.  For  some 
reason  known  only  to  himself,  her  husband  did  not  take 
the  trouble  to  pursue  her ;  but  Lieutenant  Bomford  did. 
He  organized  a  force  of  citizens  and  soldiers,  and  sallied 
forth  in  quest  of  the  lady.  He  found  her,  and  she  re- 
warded him  by  marrying  him  after  she  had  obtained  a 
divorce  from  her  indifferent  lord. 

Colonel  and  Mrs.  Bomford  resided  at  Kalorama  for 
many  years.  During  their  residence  here  the  Decatur- 
Barron  duel  took  place,  and  the  body  of  Decatur 
found  a  temporary  resting-place  in  the  tomb  of  the  Bar- 
lows. This  vault  is  still  visible  at  the  top  of  a  small  hill 
near  the  main  entrance  to  the  Kalorama  grounds.  With 
its  low  sharp1  roof  and  its  plastered  walls,  it  looks  like  an 
old  spring-house.  It  bears  an  inscription  to  the  memory 
of  Joel  Barlow,  "  poet,  patriot,  and  philosopher,"  although 
he  was  buried,  when  he  died,  at  Cracow,  Poland. 

When  Mrs.  Decatur  left  the  Decatur  mansion,  she  re- 
tired to  Kalorama.  And  years  after  her  husband's  death 


THE   MOTHER   OF   THE   BLAIRS.  573 

she  made  it  famous  by  the  elegant  entertainments  which 
she  gave  there.  There  are  gentlemen  still  in  public  life 
in  Washington.,  who  recall  the  elegant  and  costly  dinners 
given  by  this  lady  at  Kalorama. 

This  beautiful  historic  spot  is  now  owned  by  a  family 
named  Lovett,  who,  it  is  said,  intend  in  time  to  rebuild  it. 

Following  Seventh  street  a  mile  or  two  beyond  the 
city  limits,  we  come  to  an  unpretending  country  house, 
at  some  distance  back  from  the  road,  surrounded  by 
lawns,  gardens  and  groves.  It  is  a  long,  low  house,  be- 
fore which  runs  a  piazza,  and  behind  which  bubbles  a 
famous  spring.  If  it  is  morning,  a  pair  of  saddle-horses 
stand  waiting  their  riders  before  the  door.  Presently 
they  come  out  together,  an  ancient  knight  and  lady, 
ready  for  a  ten-mile  ride  on  horseback.  Eighty  years 
and  more  have  set  their  seal  on  the  brows  of  each.  The 
gentleman's  frame  bears  the  marks  of  extreme  age ;  it  is 
attenuated,  yet  shows  few  signs  of  decrepitude.  His 
skin  may  look  like  parchment,  but  the  eyes  burn  with 
unabated  fires.  The  lady  is  tall,  straight,  and  stately, 
with  dark,  keen  eyes,  and"  head  erect,  as  befits  the  mother 
of  the  Blairs.  She  has  a  son  more  than  sixty  years  of 
age,  and  yet  she  seems  not  to  have  lived  so  many  years 
herself.  More  than  fifty  years  ago,  this  couple,  by  wagons 
and  on  horseback,  came  through  the  woods  from  far  Ken- 
tucky to  seek  their  fortune  in  the  new  capital  city.  The 
struggling  village  has  grown  into  a  metropolis ;  sons  and 
daughters  to  the  fourth  generation  have  blessed  them ; 
they  have  done  their  share  in  the  making  and  unmaking 
of  presidents  and  men  in  power;  they  have  received 
their  full  meed  of  honor  as  well  as  of  blame ;  their  name 
has  grown  to  fame ;  they  have  long  outstripped  the 


574  TEN   YEARS    IN  WASHINGTON. 

allotted  years  of  man,  and  here  they  are,  ready  for  their 
eight  or  ten  miles'  horseback  ride  this  morning.  This  is 
Francis  P.  Blair,  Senior,  and  his  wife,  and  this  their 
country  home.  Honored  among  suburban  Washington 
haunts  is  "  Silver  Spring." 

Almost  any  sunny  day  this  ancient  knight  and  lady, 
mounted  on  their  two  solid  steeds,  with  a  green  bough  in 
their  hands  in  lieu  of  riding  whips,  she  with  a  stately  ca- 
lash upon  her  head,  may  be  seen  jogging  along  Pennsyl- 
vania avenue  toward  the  stately  home  of  Montgomery 
Blair,  which  faces  the  War-Department.  For  more  than 
two  generations  Mr.  Blair  has  been  a  power  in  the  land. 
He  has  had  more  or  less  to  do  with  the  making  and  un- 
making of  every  president  since  the  days  of  Jackson.  The 
Nestor  of  the  Washington  Press,  he  was  a  powerful  sup- 
porter of  "old  Hickory,"  and  to-day  retains,  undiminished, 
the  living  love  now  bestowed  upon  the  friend  so  long 
buried  in  the  past.  Mr.  Blair,  leaning  on  his  long  staff, 
may  often  be  seen  wandering  through  the  unbowered 
ways  of  Lafayette  square,  which  he  so  well  remembers  as 
the  Burns'  orchard.  Here  he  never  fails  to  gaze  upon 
the  bronze  equestrian  statue  of  his  friend.  Others  may 
laugh  at  the  pivoted  horse,  but  "  old  Frank  Blair  "  pro- 
nounces the  statue  to  be  the  best  likeness  of  Jackson  now 
extant. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Burns'  house,  the  oldest 
houses  in  the  city  are  found  on  Capitol  Hill.  Here  are 
houses  whose  antiquity  alone  make  them  remarkable 
amid  the  houses  of  America.  For  example,  here  is  the  old 
Duddington  house,  built  by  Daniel  Carroll,  who  you  may 
remember  was  so  angry  with  Major  L'Enfant  for  tearing 
down  his  first  abode,  in  the  way  of  a  beloved  street.  The 


OLD   HOUSES    OF   THE   CAPITAL.  575 

present  house,  built  at  that  time,  stands  jus  in  front  of 
the  old  site.  Going  south-east  from  the  Capitol,  the  tall 
forest  .trees  of  Duddington  are  soon  visible.  So  com- 
pletely do  they  screen  the  house,  nothing  is  seen  of  it 
until  the  visitor  comes  to  the  large  entrance  gate,  directly 
in  front  of  the  dwelling.  It  is  a  double  house,  built  of 
red  brick,  with  wings  stretching  out  on  either  side.  The 
grounds  are  beautiful  in  their  very  wildness,  presenting 
all  the  attributes  of  a  primitive  forest.  Outside  is  a 
spring  with  an  ancient  covering  of  brick.  "  This  spring 
was  once  a  well-known  resort,  on  the  Duddington  farm, 
for  the  school-boys  of  the  neighborhood,  one  of  whom,  an 
aged  man  now,  told  me  how  pleasantly  he  used  to  pass 
his  noon  recess  there." 

Nearly  all  the  buildings  in  this  part  of  the  city  can  lay 
claim  to  antiquity.  Many  of  them  were  built  by  Thomas 
Low,  of  brick  brought  from  England.  Thomas  Low  is  an 
historic  name  in  V/ashington.  "  The  brother  of  Lord 
Ellenborough,  he  belonged  to  one  of  the  most  distin- 
guished families  in  England.  He  amassed  a  large  fortune 
in  India,  at  the  time  that  Warren  Hastings  was  Governor- 
General.  He  was  a  friend  of  Hastings,  and  warmly  de- 
fended him.  Low  brought  with  him  to  this  country  five 
hundred  thousand  dollars  in  gold.  Soon  after  his  arrival 
he  became  acquainted  with  General  Washington,  who  in- 
duced him  to  invest  largely  in  the  wilderness  which  was 
to  be  transformed  into  the  capital  of  the  nation.  The 
investment  was  not  profitable  to  Mr.  Low.  The  high 
price  set  upon  property  caused  the  city  to  go  up  far  in 
the  rear  of  his  many  new  buildings.  He  married  Miss 
Custis,  the  granddaughter  of  Mrs.  Washington,  and  sister 
of  George  W.  Parke  Custis.  His  matrimonial  venture 


576  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

was  not  more  satisfactory  than  his  landed  one.  He 
parted  from  his  wife,  and  at  his  death  his  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars  had  dwindled  down  to  one  hundred 
thousand.  Mr.  Low  was  so  absent-minded,  it  is  said  he 
would  forget  his  name  when  inquiring  for  letters  at  the 
post-office,  and  once  locked  his  wife  in  a  room,  and  not 
knowing  what  he  had  done,  half  a  day  passed  before  she 
obtained  her  liberty. 

There  is  a  row  of  two-story  brick  dwellings  near  Dud- 
dington  which  were  built  by  Mr.  Low,  in  one  of  which 
he  lived.  These  houses  bear  the  name  of  the  "  Ten  Build- 
ings." During  Mr.  Low's  residence  there,  Louis  Phillippe, 
then  an  exile,  was  his  guest.  In  one  of  these  the  first 
copy  of'  the  National  Intelligencer  was  printed,  October 
31, 1800.  Another  row  of  houses  on  New  Jersey  avenue, 
one  block  south  of  the  Capitol,  was  also  built  by  Thomas 
Low.  Originally  they  were  fashionable  boarding-houses, 
and  such  men  as  Thomas  Jefferson,  Alexander  Dallas  and 
Louis  Phillippe  were  entertained  beneath  their  roof.  They 
are  now  occupied  by  the  Coast  Survey.  In  this  house 
the  bill  was  drawn  up  and  prepared  for  presentation  to 
Congress,  authorizing  the  establishment  of  a  United  States 
Bank.  A  house  a  little  nearer  to  the  Capitol,  long  occu- 
pied by  John  W.  Forney,  was  built  for  the  Bank  of 
Washington,  but  never  occupied  Jbr  that  purpose.  In- 
stead, the  United  States  Supreme  Court  held  its  sessions 
in  it  for  several  years,  and  a  house  opposite  was  used  as 
the  Bank  of  Washington. 

Opposite  the  eastern  front  of  the  Capitol  may  be  seen 
a  block  of  three  houses,  which  for  modern  elegance  will 
bear  comparison  with  any  in  Washington.  Any  one  who 
recalls  the  forbidding-looking  edifice  which  used  to  occupy 


REMINISCENCES    OF   SIXTY   YEARS   AGO.  577 

this  site  will  find  it  difficult  to  identify  this  elegant  block 
of  private  dwelling-houses  with  the  Old  Capitol  Prison. 
Nevertheless  the  walls  which  once  enclosed  Wirz,  Belle 
Boyd,  "rebels"  and  sinners  of  every  phase  and  degree  be- 
side no  inconsiderable  number  of  perfectly  innocent  prison- 
ers, now  surround  the  luxurious  drawing-rooms  of  a  su- 
preme judge,  a  senator,  and  an  advocate-general.  This 
building  which  will  ever  remain  most  memorable  as  the  Old 
Capitol  Prison,  was  built  for  the  temporary  accommoda- 
tion of  Congress  in  1815.  Niles, Register  of  November 
4,  1815  in  an  article  entitled  : — "  The  Capitol  Rising  from 
Its  Ashes  "  thus  speaks  of  this  building : 

"The  new  building  on  Capitol  Hill  preparing  for  the  ac- 
commodation of  Congress,  is  in  such  a  state  of  forwardness, 
that  it  is  expected  to  be  finished  early  in  November.  The  spa- 
cious room  for  the  House  of  Representatives  has  been  finished 
for  several  weeks.  The  Senate-room  has  been  plaistered  for 
some  time." 

Congress  took  possession  of  the  new  house,  December 
4,  1815.  The  first  day  a  communication  was  received 
from  the  citizens  who  voluntarily  erected  the  building  for 
the  temporary  accommodation  of  Congress.  The  build- 
ing cost  $30,000;  $5,000  of  which  had  been  expended 
on  objects  necessary  for  the  accommodation  of  Congress, 
which  would  be  useless  when  they  vacated  the  house. 
Therefore  the  proprietors  declared  they  would  be  satis- 
fied with  $5,000  in  money,  and  a  rent  of  $1,650  per  an- 
num with  cost  of  insurance.  Niles'  Register  went  on  to 
say: 

"  The  spot  where  this  large  and  commodious  building  was 
erected  was  a  garden  on  the  fourth  of  July  last ;  the  bricks  of 


578  TEN   YEAKS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

which  it  is  built  were  clay,  and  the  timber  used  in  its  construc- 
tion was  growing  in  the  woods  on  that  day." 

The  building  thus  expeditiously  erected,  was  used  as  the 
Capitol  for  several  years.  In  front  of  this  building,  James 
Monroe  was  inaugurated  with  great  brilliancy,  March  4, 
1817.  In  the  winter  of  1833-4,  Luigi  Persico  occupied  a 
room  in  this  house  as  a  studio.  There  in  plaster  stood 
the  group,  which  now  in  marble  occupies  the  south  block 
in  front  of  the  main  entrance  to  the  Rotunda  known 
as  "Columbus  and  the  Indian."  Says  the  Hon.  B.  B. 
French : 

"How  well  I  remember  the  artistic  enthusiasm  with  which  he 
described  to  me  his  conception  of  Columbus  holding  up,  with 
his  right  hand,  the  new  world  which  he  had  discovered ! 

There  he  stands,  in  marble,  to-day,  with  that  same  "new 
world,"  in  the  form  of  a  huge  nine-pin  ball,  or  bomb-shell,  eleva- 
ted in  his  right  hand,  to  the  vast  apparent  admiration  or  fear  of 
the  crouching  squaw  at  his  side  !  What  the  squaw  is  there  for, 
or  what  she  is  doing,  has  never  yet  been  satisfactorily  decided !" 

The  next  mutation  of  this  historic  house  was  into  the 
eminently  Washingtonian  one  of  a  fashionable  boarding- 
house.  It  was  first  kept  by  a  Mrs.  Lindenberger,  after- 
wards by  a  Mr.  Henry  Hill,  and  was  always  a  favorite  abode 
of  Southern  Members  of  Congress.  John  C.  Calhoun, 
while  a  Senator  from  South  Carolina,  died  in  this  house. 
It  was  at  one  time  occupied  by  the  famous  Ann  Royal, 
who  with  her  factotum  Sally  Brass  used  it  as  the  publish- 
ing house  of  her  feared  and  famous  publications  "The 
Huntress"  and  "Paul  Pry." 

Mrs.  Royal  inaugurated  black-mailing  journalism  at  an 
early  day.  She  was  the  widow  of  a  Revolutionary  offi- 


BLACK-MAILING  AS    A   BUSINESS.  579 

cer,  who,  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  earning  her  living, 
chose  a  very  malicious  way  of  doing  it.  She  kept  what 
she  called  the  Black  Book,  in  which  she  recorded  descrip- 
tions of  the  persons  and  characters  of  conspicuous  resi- 
dents of  the  city.  She  canvassed  the  city  for  subscribers 
to  her  publications,  and  whoever  refused  was  threatened 
with  a  place  in  the  Black  Book.  So  fearfully  and  effec- 
tually was  this  threat  carried  out,  but  few  had  the  temer- 
ity to  refuse  her  requests.  If  such  a  daring  mortal  was 
found,  the  breakfast-tables  of  Washington  were,  the  next 
morning,  regaled  with  a  portrayal  whose  impudence  and 
audacity  was  only  equalled  by  its  shrewdness  and  sharp- 
ness. All  who  gave  her  money  were  sure  of  adulation, 
while  those  who  refused  it  were  equally  sure  of  being 
defamed,  without  regard  to  truth. 

She  was  feared  by  all  mankind,  from  the  highest  func- 
tionary in  the  Government  to  the  remotest  clerk  in  the 
departments.  "  Few  refused  to  comply  with  her  de- 
mands, and  clerks,  who  saw  her  approach,  would  not 
disdain  to  seek  a  friendly  hiding-place."  I  believe  she 
printed  her  papers  with  her  own  hands,  and  they  were 
afterwards  peddled  about  the  town  by  her  female  man, 
Sally  Brass. 

During  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  this  building  per- 
fectly swarmed  with  prisoners.  Not  only  soldiers  from 
the  Eebel  army,  and  undoubted  culprits,  but  also  hun- 
dreds of  citizens,  arrested  on  the  faintest  suspicion,  were 
incarcerated  within  its  walls.  Any  one  suspected  of 
having  given  comfort  to  the  enemy,  of  having  interfered 
with  military  discipline,  or  of  having  defrauded  the  Gov- 
ernment in  the  remotest  way,  was  hurried  off  to  the  Old 
Capitol  Prison.  It  was  a  small  American  Bastile,  and  it 


580  TEN   TEARS    IN   WASHINGTON. 

is  well,  perhaps,  that  its  walls  cannot  tell  all  or  aught 
of  the  oppression  and  outrage  which  transpired  within 
them.  In  its  yard  stood  the  just  gallows  whereon  Wirz 
was  hung  for  the  tortures  which  he  inflicted  on  Union 
prisoners  at  Andersonville.  Others  were  also  executed 
here  during  the  war. 

Soon  after  the  close  of  the  war,  Mr.  George  T.  Brown, 
then  Sergeant-at-Arms  of  the  Senate,  bought  the  property 
and  proceeded  to  transmute  the  Old  Capitol  Prison  into 
the  three  elegant  mansions  which  now  occupy  its  ground. 

With  this  famous  house  must  close  my  chapter  on  the 
Historic  Homes  and  Haunts  of  "Washington.  To  write 
minutely  of  them  all  would  require  a  volume.  Full  de- 
tail is  here  impossible,  but  no  one  of  the  most  famous 
has  been  omitted. 


CHAPTER  XLIX. 

MOUNT  VERNON  — MEMORIAL   DAY  —  ARLINGTON. 

The  Tomb  of  Washington — The  Pilgrims  Who  Visit  it — Where  George  and 
Martha  Washington  Rest — The  American  Mecca — The  Thought  of 
Other  Graves — The  Defenders  of  the  Republic — Eating  Boiled  Eggs — A 
Butterfly  Visit— The  Old  Mansion-House—Patriarchal  Dogs— Remem- 
bering a  Feast — The  Room  in  which  Washington  Died — The  Great 
Key  of  the  Bastile— The  Gift  of  Lafayette— The  Harpsichord  of  Elea- 
nor Custis — The  Belle  of  Mount  Vernon — Moralizing — Inside  the  Man- 
sion— Uncle  Tom's  Bouquets — Beautiful  Scenery — Memorial  Day  at 
Arlington — The  Soldiers'  Orphans — The  Grave  of  Forty  Soldiers— 
The  Sacrifice  of  a  Widow's  Son— The  Children's  Offering— The  Record 
of  the  Brave — A  National  Prayer  for  the  Dead. 

WE  have  newer  and  dearer  shrines,  even,  than  the 
tomb  of  Washington ;  yet,  in  these  soft,  summer 
mornings,  many  pilgrims  turn  their  faces  toward  Mount 
Vernon. 

Every  morning  a  large  company,  including  the  young 
and  the  old,  the  refined  and  the  vulgar,  land  at  the  little 
wharf  below  the  home  of  Washington.  Fathers  and 
mothers  come  with  their  children  and  their  lunch-baskets. 
Pretty  girls  come  with  venerable  duennas,  and  young 
men  come  to  look  at  them  in  spite  of  their  keepers. 
Lovers  come  and  go,  maundering  along  the  lanes,  as 
lovers  will.  Relic-hunters  come  to  break  off  twigs  and 
pilfer  pansies ;  newspaper  people  come,  agog  for  an  item  ; 
and,  for  the  climax,  we  will  believe  that  a  few  come 
solely  to  do  reverence  at  the  tomb  of  the  Father  of 
their  country. 


582  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

Passing  up  a  wooded  lane  that  winds  over  the  hill,  we 
reached  the  famed  sarcophagus,  which  engravings  have 
made  familiar  to  many  eyes  that  have  never  beheld  it. 
Here,  on  their  marble  couch,  amid  the  grassy  slopes  and 
tutelary  trees  of  their  ancient  domain,  rest  the  bodies  of 
George  and  Martha  Washington.  Full  of  years  and  full 
of  honors  they  laid  down,  and  their  tomb  has  been  the 
Mecca  of  this  continent.  It  never  can  be  other  than  it 
is.  Who  would  rob  it  of  one  hallowed  memory  ?  Yet, 
as  I  looked  at  its  sculptured  marble,  I  thought  of  many 
and  many  a  nameless  grave  that  I  had  seen  by  the  road- 
side, and  on  the  scathed  fields  of  Virginia,  parched  by 
summer's  sun,  covered  by  winter's  snow,  unturfed,  un- 
cared-for— the  grave  of  the  volunteer.  Dear  to  me  as 
this  sepulchre  of  the  great,  is  the  grave  of  the  lowliest 
soldier  who  perished  for  his  country. 

The  nation  will  reverence  always  the  grave  of  Wash- 
ington. But  to  this  generation,  and  to  the  generations 
which  shall  come  after,  are  committed  many  graves 
which  cannot  be  held  less  dear.  Let  every  city  and 
every  village  in  the  land  gather,  as  most  precious  jewels? 
the  names  of  its  dead  who  died  for  liberty.  Set  them  in 
enduring  marble ;  blazon  them  in  the  public  places  ;  let 
them  greet  the  traveller  on  silent  hill- tops,  and  in  the 
peaceful  vales;  the  names  of  our  heroes,  that  we,  our 
children,  our  children's  children,  to  remotest  time,  may 
never  forget  the  defenders  of  the  republic,  what  they 
suffered  and  what  they  gained. 

We  ate  boiled  eggs  and  other  good  things  within  sight 
of  the  tomb  of  the  Father  of  our  Country — a  very  neces- 
sary proceeding  before  essaying  to  climb  the  hill.  While 
we  were  eating,  a  bright  blue  butterfly  came  and  paid 


THE    ROOM   IN   WHICH    WASHINGTON   DIED.  583 

us  a  visit.  It  looked  just  as  if  one  of  the  myrtles  had 
danced  up  from  the  bank  before  us,  and  was  palpitating 
in  the  sunshiny  air.  Miss  Butterfly  was  the  loveliest 
"blue"  I  ever  saw. 

From  the  tornb  to  the  old  mansion  house  is  a  pleasant 
walk  over  upland  lawns  and  under  sheltering  trees.  A 
few  patriarchal  dogs  came  forth  to  meet  us,  and  that  was 
all  the  welcome  we  received.  Their  tails  were  very  limp, 
their  ears  very  droopy,  their  legs  very  shaky,  but  they 
did  their  best  to  seem  glad  to  see  us,  and  that  was  more 
than  anybody  else  did.  One  emaciated  quadruped,  I  am 
sure,  will  remember  to  his  dying  hour  the  luncheon  of 
beef  and  eggs  of  which  he  partook  so  peacefully  yester- 
day, under  an  old  tree  within  sight  of  Washington's  din- 
ing-room. 

I  am  thankful  that  Congress  appropriated  thousands 
of  dollars  to  repair  the  Mount  Vernon  mansion.  A  man- 
sion in  its  day,  its  rooms  can  bear  no  comparison  with 
those  of  modern  houses  which  make  no  pretensions. 
The  dining-hall  is  the  only  one  that  can  claim  anything 
like  stateliness  or  elegance  of  proportion.  The  parlors 
are  the  merest  boxes,  each  containing  one  high  window. 
The  chamber  in  which  Washington  died  commands  an 
exquisite  view,  through  the  vistas  of  the  grounds,  down 
the  Potomac.  But,  oh !  what  a  cell,  compared  with  the 
spacious  apartments  inhabited  by  the  great  generals  of 
our  own  day.  Mrs.  Washington  never  occupied  this  room 
after  the  death  of  her  husband.  It  was  closed,  and  all 
in  it  kept  sacred  to  his  memory.  She  removed  to  the 
chamber  above,  and  occupied  it  till  her  death.  We  went 
up.  It  is  a  mere  garret.  One  little  attic-window  gives 
a  meagre  glimpse  of  the  lovely  landscape  below.  But  in 


584  TEN   TEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

its  best  estate  the  room  must  have  been  very  contracted, 
dreary,  and  without  a  convenience.  No  modern  "Bridget" 
would  be  content  to  occupy  for  a  week  such  a  room  as 
this  in  which  Martha  Washington  lived  and  died. 

The  home  of  Washington,  now  the  home  of  the  nation, 
at  last  is  open,  kindly  and  genial.  Here,  in  the  hall,  in 
its  glass  case,  hangs  the  great  key  of  the  Bastile,  pre- 
sented to  Washington  by  Lafayette,  at  the  destruction  of 
that  prison  in  1789. 

Here  what  an  opportunity  to  stand  and  gaze  and  mor- 
alize over  the  history  of  the  brave  men  and  beautiful 
women  whose  faces  it  shut  into  darkness !  So  thick 
gather  the  celebrated  names,  I  must  not  mention  one. 

Here,  in  the  grand  dining-room,  stands  the  quaint 
old  harpsichord  which  General  Washington  presented  as 
a  wedding  gift  to  his  adopted  daughter,  the  beautiful 
Eleanor  Custis.  It  was  made  in  Cheapside,  Haymarket, 
London,  and  old  ocean  tossed  it  over  to  delight  the  heart 
of  the  belle  of  Mount  Vernon.  Here  what  another  fine 
opportunity  to  "reflect"  over  the  broken  and  rusty  keys 
that  once  thrilled  to  the  touch  of  beauty,  and  stirred 
with  melody  in  the  presence  of  the  great,  and  made  the 
old  halls  ring  with  the  music  of  festivals  !  Only  my  re- 
flections, like  many  other  people's,  have  all  come  to  me 
afterward,  sitting  here  in  my  chair,  thinking  of  that  old 
harpsichord.  When  I  looked  at  it,  I  doubt  if  I  had  a  re- 
flection at  all.  Staring  at  relics  in  the  midst  of  a  jostling 
crowd  is  not  particularly  conducive  to  reflection  —  at 
least  not  to  emotion.  Even  the  bedstead  on  which 
Washington  died  seems  to  lose  half  its  sacredness  being 
handled  and  commented  on  by  a  careless  crowd. 

In  the  dining-room,  we  see  the  famous  marble  mantel, 


MOUNT   VERNON.  585 

carved  in  Italy,  and  presented  to  General  Washington  by 
Samuel  Vaugh.  Its  proportions  are  not  grand,  but  its 
carving  is  exquisite,  and  it  still  retains  its  whiteness  and 
polish. 

The  dining-room  is  a  noble  apartment  of  lofty  propor- 
tions, extending  through  the  depth  of  the  house,  its 
windows  on  front,  back  and  sides  overlooking  the  love- 
liest portion  of  the  grounds.  It  is  a  sunshiny  room,  fit 
for  family  cheer.  And  (reflection  third)  what  illustrious 
men  and  famous  women  have  broken  bread  and  tasted 
wine  within  its  carved  and  mouldy  walls  in  the  days  that 
are  no  more ! 

The  east  and  west  parlors,  leading  from  the  dining- 
room,  are  meagre,  high-windowed  rooms.  Indeed,  the 
whole  house  of  the  Father  of  his  Country,  though, 
doubtless,  a  princely  mansion  in  its  day,  reminds  a  deni- 
zen of  the  present  generation  of  the  growth  of  archi- 
tecture, and  of  modern  convenience  and  elegance,  quite 
as  much  as  of  anything  else.  Out  on  the  veranda,  where 
a  venerable  Uncle  Tom  drives  a  thrifty  trade  in  the  bou- 
quet line,  we  find  the  real  beauty  of  Mount  Yernon  — 
its  prospect.  Here,  looking  out  upon  terraced  lawns  and 
forest  trees,  and  down  the  gentlest  of  slopes  to  the  wide 
Potomac,  flecked  with  milky  sails,  steamboats  plying  its 
^aves,  and  pleasure-barques  drifting  and  dozing  with  the 
spring-time  gales,  we  see  one  of  the  softest  and  fairest 
of  landscapes.  A  gentle  sky,  the  blue  air  goldened  with 
daffodils  and  fragrant  with  hyacinths,  pleasant  friends  by 
my  side.  Thus  I  think  of  Mount  Vernon. 

Last  Saturday  was  Memorial  Day.  With  banners  and 
bands,  music  and  speech  under  the  softest  of  May  skies, 
and  in  its  serenest  airs  tens  of  thousands  of  our  soldiers' 


586  TEN   YEAES   IN  WASHINGTON. 

graves  were  decorated  with  flowers.  Most  lovely  was 
Arlington  that  day  !  No  words  could  have  been  more 
eloquently  fitting  than  those  which  were  spoken;  no 
music  tenderer,  nor  fuller  of  precious  memories,  nor 
sweeter  with  suggestions  of  Heaven,  than  that  sung 
under  those  patriarchal  trees  by  fifty  orphan  children. 
And  no  sight  could  have  been  more  touching  than  when 
these  soldiers'  orphans  laid  their  flower-wreaths  down 
upon  ten  thousand  soldiers'  graves.  Yet  the  magnetism 
of  the  multitude  was  there.  The  tide  followed  the  ban- 
ners and  the  bands,  the  blooming  maidens,  the  eloquent 
speech. 

Miles  out  Seventh  street,  beyond  Fort  Stevens,  there 
is  a  little  cemetery  where  forty  soldiers  lie  alone,  who 
fell  in  defence  of  Washington.  One  of  these  was  a  poor 
widow's  son.  She  had  three  ;  and  this  was  the  last  that 
she  gave  to  her  country.  She,  a  poor  widow,  living  far 
in  northern  Vermont,  has  never  even  seen  the  graves  of 
her  three  soldier  sons,  whom  she  gave  up,  one  by  one,  as 
they  came  to  man's  estate  ;  and  who  went  forth  from  her 
love'to  return  to  it  living  no  more. 

To  this  little  grave-yard  on  Seventh  street  one  woman 
went  alone  with  her  children,  carrying  forty  wreaths  of 
May's  loveliest  flowers,  and  laid  one  on  every  grave. 
Forty  mother's  sons  slept  under  the  green  turf;  and  one 
mother,  in  her  large  love,  remembered  and  consecrated 
them  all.  She  chose  these  because,  with  more  than  thirty 
thousand  others  in  the  larger  cemeteries  to  be  decorated, 
she  feared  the  forty,  in  their  isolation,  might  be  forgotten. 
No  others  followed  her ;  and  this  mother,  alone  with  her 
children,  scattering  flowers  in  the  silence  of  love  upon 
those  unreinembered  graves,  some  way  wears  a  halo 
which  does  not  shine  about  the  multitude. 


A  NATIONAL  PRAYER  FOR  THE  DEAD.       587 

We  look  on  Arlington  through  softest  airs.  How  beau- 
tiful it  is !  how  sad  it  is !  how  holy  !  Again  the  tender 
spring  grasses  have  crept  over  its  sixteen  thousand  graves. 
The  innocents,  the  violets  of  the  woods,  are  blooming  over 
the  heads  of  our  brave.  In  the  rear  of  the  house  a  gran- 
ite obelisk  has  been  raised  to  the  two  thousand  who  sleep 
in  one  grave.  Four  cannon  point  from  its  summit,  and 
on  its  face  it  bears  this  inscription : — 

"  Beneath  this  stone  repose  the  bones  of  two  thousand  one 
hundred  and  eleven  unknown  soldiers,  gathered  after  the  war 
from  the  fields  of  Bull  Run,  and  the  route  to  the  Rappahannock. 
Their  bodies  could  not  be  identified,  but  their  names  and  deaths 
are  recorded  in  the  archives  of  their  country,  and  its  grateful 
citizens  honor  them  as  their  noble  army  of  martyrs.  May  they 
rest  in  peace." 

The  rooms  and  conservatories  of  the  house  are  filled 
with  luxurious  plants,  soon  to  be  set  out  on  the  graves  of 
this  cemetery.  Beauty  and  silence  reign  through  this 
domain  of  the  dead.  There  is  a  hush  in  the  air,  and  a 
hush  in  the  heart,  as  you  walk  through  it,  reading  its 
names,  pausing  by  the  graves  of  its  "  unknown,"  thinking 
of  the  past.  Far  as  the  sight  reaches,  stretch  the  long 
columns  of  immortal  dead.  The  beauty  of  their  sleeping- 
place,  the  reverent  care  covering  it  everywhere,  tells  how 
dear  to  the  Nation's  heart  is  the  dust  of  its  heroes,  how 
sacred  the  spot  where  they  lie.  In  this  let  us  not  forget 
the  still  higher  love  which  we  owe  them ;  let  us  attest  it 
by  a  deeper  Devotion  to  the  principles  for  which  they 
died. 


CHAPTER  L. 

THE  LIFE  AND   CAREER  OF  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  THE 
MARTYRED  PRESIDENT. 

The  National  Republican  Convention  of  1880 — Nomination  of  James  A.  Gar- 
field  as  President  Hayes's  Successor — The  History  of  His  Life — His 
Humble  Home — Death  of  His  Father — Hardships  and  Privations  of 
Pioneer  Life— Struggles  of  His  Mother  to  Support  the  Family — Splitting 
Fence  Rails  with  her  own  Hands — The  Future  President's  Early  School 
Days — "Working  as  a  Carpenter — Chopping  Wood  for  a  Living — Leaving 
Home — Life  as  a  Canal  Boat  Boy — Narrow  Escapes — Beginning  His 
Education  in  Earnest — School  Life  at  Chester — How  He  Paid  His  Own 
Way — First  Meeting  with  his  Future  Wife — Early  Religious  Experience 
— Enters  Williams  College— Professor  and  President — His  First  Appear- 
ance in  Politics — His  Brilliant  Military  Record — His  Services  at  Shiloh, 
Corinth,  and  Chickamauga — His  Congressional  Career— Republican  Leader 
of  the  House  of  Representatives — He  is  Elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate — His  Appearance  as  the  Leader  of  the  Sherman  Forces  at  the 
Chicago  Convention— He  is  Himself  Nominated  amid  the  Wildest  En- 
thusiam — An  Exciting  Campaign — His  Triumphant  Election. 

THE  occupants  of  the  White  House,  from  March, 
1877,  to  March,  1881,  were  Rutherford  B.  and  Lucy 
Webb  Hayes,  of  Ohio.  Mr.  Hayes's  nomination  by  the 
Republican  National  Convention,  at  Cincinnati,  was  a 
surprise  to  his  party  and  the  country,  and  his  election 
was  for  a  long  time  in  doubt.  Both  the  Republicans  and 
the  Democrats  claimed  the  electoral  votes  of  Florida, 
South  Carolina,  and  Louisiana,  and  at  one  time  civil  war 
seemed  a  not  remote  possibility,  so  intense  was  the  parti- 
san excitement,  and  so  inflammable  the  state  of  the  public 
mind.  But  better  and  wiser  counsels  prevailed,  and  by 
the  efforts  of  leading  men  of  both  parties  an  electoral 

(538) 


JAMES  A.  GARFIELD,  THH  MARTYRED  PRESIDENT. 

r  thin  work.) 


PRESIDENT  HAYES'S  ADMINISTRATION.  589 

commission  was  established  to  which  all  doubtful  matters 
were  referred,  and  Mr.  Hayes  was  declared  elected  by  a 
majority  of  one  electoral  vote  over  Samuel  J.  Tiluen,  of 
New  York.  Many  of  Mr.  Tilden's  friends  and  party  sup- 
porters, and  some  of  those  who  had  opposed  his  election, 
questioned  the  legality  of  Mr.  Hayes's  election,  and  con- 
tended that  Mr.  Tilden  should  have  had  the  position. 
Mr.  Hayes's  administration  was  generally  quiet  and  une- 
ventful, save  that  it  marked  the  resumption  of  specie 
payments,  and  witnessed  the  transition  from  almost  un- 
precedented business  depression  and  industrial  inactivity 
to  a  period  of  almost  unexampled  industrial  activity  and 
business  prosperity.  Mrs.  Hayes  was  perhaps  the  most 
popular  President's  wife  who  had  ever  occupied  the  White 
House,  and  more  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  saw 
the  inside  of  the  Executive  Mansion  during  her  residence 
there  than  during  any  previous  administration,  or  perhaps 
all  of  them  combined.  No  one  of  the  many  excursion 
parties  that  visited  Washington  while  Mrs.  Hayes  was 
there  was  allowed  to  go  away  without  seeing  the  "  blue 
room,"  the  "red  room,"  and  the  famous  White  House 
conservatory,  if  any  wish  to  that  effect  was  expressed ; 
and  besides  opening  the  White  House  freely  to  the  peo- 
ple, Mrs.  Hayes  received  her  multitude  of  visitors  no  less 
gracefully  and  cordially  than  if  they  had  been  neighbors 
who  had  "  dropped  in  "  of  an  afternoon  or  evening. 

The  National  Republican  Convention,  which  met  at 
Chicago,  in  1880,  to  select  a  candidate  to  succeed  Mr. 
Hayes,  nominated  James  Abram  Garfield.  That  Ohio 
should  carry  oif  the  first  honor  of  the  Republican  party 
for  two  successive  Presidential  terms  was  an  extraordi* 


590  TEN   TEAKS   IN    WASHINGTON. 

nary  circumstance,  but  Gen.  Garfield's  nomination,  while 
it  pleased  Ohio  men,  electrified  the  country,  and  awoke 
great  enthusiam. 

James  Abram  Garfield  was  born  in  a  log  cabin  at 
Orange,  Ohio,  November  19,  1831.  His  father,  Abram 
Garfield,  was  born  in  New  York  from  Massachusetts  an- 
cestry, the  founder  of  the  Garfield  family  in  the  United 
States,  Edward,  having  emigrated  from  England  in  1736, 
and  settled  at  Watertown,  Mass.  Two  of  Edward  Gar- 
field's  sons,  Abraham  and  Solomon,  took  part  in  the  revolu- 
tionary war,  and  when  that  war  was  over  Solomon  left  New 
England,  and  fixed  his  residence  in  Otsego  county,  New 
York.  It  was  there  that  Abram  Garfield  was  born,  and 
after  his  marriage  with  Eliza  Ballou,  a  New  Hampshire 
girl,  and  a  connection  of  Hosea  Ballou,  one  of  the  great 
apostles  of  Universalism  in  this  country,  the  young  couple 
went  to  Ohio  and  wrested  a  farm  from  the  primeval  forest, 

The  dwelling  of  the  Garfields  was  built  after  the  stand 
ard  pattern  of  the  houses  of  poor  Ohio  farmers  in  that 
day.  Its  walls  were  of  logs,  its  roof  was  of  shingles  split 
with  an  axe,  and  its  floor  of  rude  thick  planking  split 
out  of  tree-trunks  with  a  wedge  and  maul.  It  had  only 
one  room,  at  one  end  of  which  was  the  big  cavern- 
ous chimney,  where  the  cooking  was  done,  and  at  the 
other  a  bed.  The  younger  children  slept  in  a  trundle-bed, 
which  was  pushed  under  the  bedstead  of  their  parents 
in  the  daytime  to  get  it  out  of  the  way,  for  there  was  no 
room  to  spare ;  the  older  ones  climbed  a  ladder  to  the 
loft  under  the  steep  roof. 

The  father  worked  hard  early  and  late  to  clear  his 
land  and  plant  and  gather  his  crops.  No  man  in  all  the 


EAKLY   HOME    OF    JAMES   A.    GABFLELD.  591 

region  around  could  wield  an  axe  like  him.  Fenced  fields 
soon  took  the  place  of  the  forest ;  an  orchard  was  planted, 
a  barn  built,  and  the  family  was  full  of  hope  for  the 
future,  when  death  removed  its  strong  support.  Just  be- 
fore he  died,  pointing  to  his  children,  he  said  to  his  wife : 
"  Eliza,  I  have  planted  four  saplings  in  these  woods.  I 
leave  them  to  your  care."  He  was  buried  in  a  corner  of 
a  wheat-field  on  his  farm.  James,  the  baby,  was  eighteen 
months  old  at  the  time. 

The  eldest  of  Mrs.  Garfield's  four  children  was  a  daughter, 
aged  eleven;  then  came  Thomas,  aged  nine;  then  a 
daughter  of  seven,  and  the  baby  boy  of  two  summers.  A 
part  of  the  farm  was  sold  to  pay  off  the  debt,  and  Mrs. 
Garfield  and  Thomas  cultivated  the  rest,  and  kept  the 
family  together.  Mrs.  Garfield  split-  rails  for  fencing  with 
her  own  hands,  slight  and  delicate  woman  though  she 
was.  Some  of  her  neighbors  undertook  to  give  her  a 
"bee"  to  help  her  get  out  rails  for  fencing,  but  went 
home  when  she  declined  to  treat  them  with  rum,  and  the 
brave  little  woman  split  her  own  rails.  Mrs.  Garfield's 
anxiety  that  her  children,  and  especially  James,  should 
have  educational  advantages  was  so  great  that  the  first 
school  house  in  that  region  was  built  on  land  which  she 
gave  for  that  purpose. 

There,  at  the  age  of  three,  James  began  his  life  of 
study,  and  that  he  was  enabled  to  pursue  his  studies 
after  he  reached  the  age  when  he  could  work  was  largely 
due  to  the  self-denial  of  his  mother  and  his  brother 
Thomas.  The  first  pair  of  shoes  which  the  little  fel- 
low had  were  bought  with  money  which  Thomas  had 
earned,  and  it  was  the  pleasure  of  this  elder  brother,  Avho 


592  TEN   YEAES   IN    WASHINGTON. 

is  now  living  near  Grand  Rapids,  Mich.,  to  do  everything 
in  his  power  to  help  James  along.  For  that  he  gave  up 
his.  own  desire  for  an  education,  and  he  always  rejoiced 
in  his  brother's  advancement  and  renown  as  though  it  had 
been  his  own. 

James  was  a  precocious  boy,  both  physically  and  men- 
tally. At  four,  he  received  at  the  district  school  the  prize 
of  a  New  Testament  as  the  best  reader  in  the  primary 
class.  At  eight  he  had  read  all  the  books  contained  in 
the  little  log  farm-house,  and  began  to  borrow  from  the 
neighbors  such  works  as  "  Robinson  Crusoe,"  Josephus's 
"  History  and  Wars  of  the  Jews,"  Goodrich's  "  United 
States,"  and  Pollock's  "  Course  of  Time."  These  were 
read  and  re-read,  until  he  could  relate  whole  chapters  from 
memory.  At'  the  distiict  school  James  was  known  as  a 
fighting  boy.  He  found  that  the  larger  boys  were  dis- 
posed to  insult  and  abuse  a  little  fellow  who  had  no  father 
or  big  brother  to  protect  him,  and  he  resented  such  impo- 
sition with  all  the  force  of  a  sensitive  nature  backed  by  a 
hot  temper,  great  physical  courage,  and  a  strength  unusual 
for  his  age.  Many  stories  are  told  of  the  pluck  shown  in 
his  encounters  with  the  rough  country  lads  in  defence  of 
his  boyish  rights  and  honor.  They  say  he  never  began  a 
fight  and  never  cherished  malice,  but  when  enraged  by 
taunts  or  insults  would  attack  boys  of  twice  his  size  with 
the  fury  and  tenacity  of  a  bull-dog.  When  he  was  twelve 
years  old  his  brother  returned  from  Michigan,  where  he 
had  been  employed  by  a  farmer  to  make  clearings,  with 
money  enough  to  build  a  frame  house  for  his  mother. 
James  assisted  him,  and  did  so  well  that  one  of  the  join- 
ers advised  him  to  follow  carpentering  as  a  trade.  Dur- 


EABXIXG    ms   FIRST  DOLLAR.  593 

ing  the  next  two  years  lie  worked  regularly  as  a  carpen- 
ter, going  to  school  only  at  intervals,  but  studying  dili 
gently  in  spare  hours  at  home. 

He  was  as  ready  to  work  as  he  was  to  study  or  defend 
himself.  He  often  got  employment  in  the  haying  and 
harvesting  season  from  the  farmers  of  Orange.  When  he 
was  sixteen  he  walked  ten  miles  to  Aurora,  in  company 
with  a  boy  older  than  himself,  looking  for  work.  They 
offered  their  services  to  a  farmer  who  had  a  good  deal  of 
hay  to"  cut.  "  What  wages  do  you  expect  ? "  asked  the 
man.  "Man's  wages — a  dollar  a  day,"  replied  young 
Garfield.  The  farmer  thought  they  were  not  old  enough 
to  earn  full  wages.  "  Then  let  us  mow  that  field  by  the 
acre,"  said  the  young  man.  The  farmer  agreed;  the 
customary  price  per  acre  was  50  cents.  By  four  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon  the  hay  was  down  and  the  boys  earned  a 
dollar  apiece.  Then  the  farmer  engaged  them  for  a  fort- 
night. James's  first  wages  were  earned  from  a  merchant 
who  had  an  ashery  where  he  leached  ashes  and  made 
black  salts,  which  were  shipped  by  lake  and  canal  to  New 
York.  He  got  $9  a  month  and  his  board,  and  stuck  to 
the  business  for  two  months,  at  the  end  of  which  his  hair 
below  his  cap  was  bleached  and  colored  by  the  fumes 
until  it  assumed  a  lively  red  hue.  About  that  time 
he  took  a  job  of  cutting  100  cords  of  oak  wood  at  50  cents 
a  cord,  and  put  up  his  two  ,  cords  a  day  without  any 
trouble. 

Like  most    active  and    restless   boys    he  wanted  to 

become  a  sailor,  and  went  to  Cleveland  to  ship  on  a  lake 

schooner.     The  first  captain  to  whom  he  applied  greeted 

him  with  such  a  torrent  of  profanity  that  he  turned  about 

38 


594  TEN   YEAKS   IN    WASHINGTON. 

to  go  home,  but  afterwards  accepted  an  offer  from  his 
cousin,  Amos  Setcher,  to  drive  horses  on  the  canal  boat 
tow  path  for  "$10  a  month  and  found,"  a  dazzling  offer  in 
those  days.  A  few  months  of  association  with  the  rough 
canal  boatmen  dispelled  much  of  the  romance  with  which 
his  fancy  had  invested  an  aquatic  life,  and  after,  falling 
into  the  canal  no  less  than  14  times,  the  last  time  barely 
escaping  with  his  life,  he  made  up  his  mind  that  Provi. 
dence  might  have  something  better  in  store  for  him  than 
driving  a  canal  boat.  His  brief  canal  experience  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  long  fit  of  sickness,  and  after  his  recovery  he 
took  his  savings,  and  with  some  assistance  from  his  brother 
Thomas,  began  his  education  in  earnest. 

Accompanied  by  a  cousin  and  another  young  man  from 
the  neighborhood,  and  supplied  by  his  mother  with  a  few 
pots,  frying  pans  and  dinner  plates,  he  set  out  for  Chester, 
where  the  academy  was  located.  The  three  young  men 
rented  a  room  in  an  old,  unpainted  building  near  the 
academy,  and,  with  their  cooking  utensils,  a  few  dilapi- 
dated chairs,  loaned  by  a  kindly  neighbor,  and  some  straw 
ticks,  which  they  spread  upon  the  floor  to  sleep  on,  they 
set  up  housekeeping — for  they  were  too  poor  to  pay  board 
as  well  as  tuition.  Garfield  paid  his  own  way  by  taking 
odd  jobs  from  carpenters  Saturdays  and  evenings.  Dur- 
ing the  summer  he  made  enough  by  chopping  wood  to 
pay  his  board  for  the  next  academy  term,  the  price  for 
his  board,  washing,  and  lodging  being  $1.06  a  week. 

He  now  thought  himself  competent  to  teach  a  country 
school,  but  in  two  days'  tramping  through  Cuyahoga 
county  failed  to  find  employment.  Some  schools  had 
already  engaged  teachers,  and  where  there  was  still  a 


"  JIM  GAFFIELD"  vs.  "ME. GARFIELD," TIIE  SCHOLMASTER.  595 

vacancy  the  trustees  thought  him  too  young.  He  returned 
home  completely  discouraged  and  greatly  humiliated  by 
the  rebuffs  he  had  met  with.  He  made  a  resolution  that 
he  would  never  again  ask  for  a  position  of  any  sort,  and 
the  resolution  was  kept,  for  every  public  place  he  has 
since  had  has  come  to  him  unsought. 

Next  morning,  while  still  in  the  depths  of  despondency, 
he  heard  a  man  call  to  his  mother  f rorn  the  road,  "  Widow 
Gaffield"  (a  local  corruption  of  the  name  Garfield), 
"  where's  your  boy  Jim  ?  I  wonder  if  he  wouldn't  like 
to  teach  our  school  at  the  Ledge."  James  went  out  and 
found  a  neighbor  from  a  district  a  mile  away,  where  the 
school  had  been  broken  up  for  two  winters  by  the  rowdy- 
ism of  the  big  boys.  He  said  he  would  like  to  try  the 
school,  but  before  deciding  must  consult  his  uncle,  Amos 
Boynton.  That  evening  there  was  a  family  council 
Uncle  Amos  pondered  over  the  matter,  and  finally  said, 
T<  You  go  and  try  it.  You  will  go  into  that  school  as  the 
boy,  i  Jim  Gaffield,'  see  that  you  come  out  as  Mr.  Garfield, 
the  school-master."  '  The  young  man  mastered  the  school, 
after  a  hard  tussle  in  the  school-room  with  the  bully  of 
the  district,  who  resented  a  flogging  and  tried  to  brain 
the  teacher  with  a  billet  of  wood.  His  wages  were  $12 
a  month  and  board,  and  he  "boarded  around"  in  the 
families  of  the  pupils. 

In  the  fall  of  this  term  he  first  met  Lucretia  Rudolph, 
whom  the  whole  world  now  honors  as  Mrs.  Garfield.  Eng. 
lish  grammar,  natural  philosophy,  arithmetic  and  algebra 
were  his  principal  studies,  and  he  soon  had  sufficient  knowl- 
edge of  them  to  teach  in  a  district  school.  For  three  years 
he  continued  his  work  at  the  academy,  at  the  school,  and 


596  TEN   YEAES    IN    WASHINGTON. 

in  the  carpenters'  shops  in  autumn  and  winter,  and  in  the 
woods  in  the  summer,  thus  managing  not  only  to  pay  his 
expenses  at  the  academy,  but  to  save  something  toward 
the  expenses  of  his  college  education.  It  was  while  he 
was  teaching  during  his  academy  life  that  he  became  per- 
sonally interested  in  religion  and  joined  the  Christian  Dis- 
ciples, or  Campbellites  as  they  are  often  called  from  their 
founder.  Of  this  denomination  he  was  ever  after  a  con- 
sistent and  active  member.  In  the  fall  of  1851  he  went 
to  Hiram  and  asked  of  the  trustees  of  the  institution  there 
the  privilege  of  making  the  fires  and  sweeping  to  pay  a 
portion  of  his  expenses.  He  soon  became  a  teacher,  and 
in  1854,  was  ready  to  enter  college  in  advance  and  had 
$350  saved  toward  meeting  his  expenses.  His  decided 
anti-slavery  opinions  led  him  to  seek  admission  to  some 
New  England  college,  and  a  friendly  reply  from  Presi- 
dent Mark  Hopkins,  of  Williams  College,  to  a  letter  of 
inquiry,  secured  for  Williams  her  most  illustrious  alum- 
nus. He  graduated  at  Williams  in  1856,  returned  to 
Hiram  as  professor  of  Greek  and  Latin,  and  two  years 
later  was  married  and  elected  president  of  Hiram  College. 
Up  to  1856  Mr.  Garfield  had  taken  but  little  interest 
in  public  affairs,  but  with  the  Kansas-Nebraska  legislation 
his  political  pulses  began  to  stir.  He  then  became  an 
active  Republican,  and  entered  into  politics  with  the  same 
ardor  that  characterized  his  efforts  as  an  educator.  His 
first  political  speech  was  made  at  Williamstown  in  1856, 
just  before  he  left  college,  in  behalf  of  Fremont,  the  first 
Republican  candidate  for  the  Presidency.  His  first  vote 
was  cast  at  the  Presidential  election  that  fall.  In  1859 
he  was  elected  by  a  large  majority  to  the  Senate  of  Ohio 


HIS   MILITARY   RECORD.  597 

from  the  counties  of  Portage  and  Summit,  and  though 
yet  scarcely  28,  at  once  took  high  rank  as  a  man  unusually 
well  informed  on  the  subjects  of  legislation,  and  effective 
and  powerful  in  debate.  His  most  intimate  friend  in  the 
Senate,  Jacob  D.  Cox,  afterward  became  a  Major-General, 
Governor  of  the  State,  and  Secretaiy  of  the  Interior. 
Garneld  pushed  his  law  studies  forward,  and  early  in  the 
winter  of  1860  wTas  admitted  to  the  bar  of  the  supreme 
court.  He  was  serving  in  the  State  Senate  when  the  war 
broke  out,  and  when  the  President's  call  for  75,000  men 
was  read  in  the  chamber,  amidst  the  tumultuous  acclama- 
tions of  the  assemblage,  he  moved  that  20,000  troops  and 
$3,000,000  at  once  be  voted  as  the  quota  of  the  State.  When 
the  time  came  for  appointing  the  officers  for  the  Ohio 
troops,  Gov.  Dennison  offered  him  command  of  the  Forty- 
Second  Infantry,  but  he  modestly  declined,  on  account  of 
his  lack  of  military  experience,  and,  resigning  the  Presi- 
dency of  Hiram  College,  he  accepted  a  position  as  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel. A  few  weeks  later,  when  the  Forty- 
Second  was  organized,  he  yielded  to  the  universal  desire 
of  its  officers,  and  accepted  the  Colonelcy.  His  first  mil- 
itary duty  was  the  conduct  of  an  expedition  against 
Humphrey  Marshall,  in  Eastern  Kentucky,  by  which  he 
won  a  Brigadier-Generalship.  He  was  at  Shiloh,  at  Cor- 
inth, and  at  Chickamauga,  where  he  wrote  every  order 
but  one,  and  for  his  gallant  bravery  at  Chickamauga  he 
was  made  a  Major-General.  While  he  was  in  camp,  after 
the  battle  of  Shiloh,  a  fugitive  slave  took  refuge  with  the 
Union  soldiers.  A  few  moments  later  the  owner  rode  up 
and  demanded  his  property.  Gen.  Garfield  was  not  pres- 
ent, and  the  slaveholder  passed  on  to  the  division  coin- 


598  TEN   YEARS    EN    WASHINGTON. 

mander,  who  ordered  Garfield,  by  written  order,  to  deliver 
the  fugitive.  Garfield  answered  by  simply  endorsing  on 
the  order:  "I  respectfully  but  positively  decline  to  allow 
my  command  to  search  for  or  deliver  up  any  fugitive 
slaves.  I  conceive  that  they  are  here  for  quite  another 
purpose."  This  position  was  sustained  by  a  general  or- 
der subsequently  issued  by  the  war  department. 

In  1862  Ohio  Republicans  of  the  19th  Ohio  District 
elected  Gen.  Garfield  to  succeed  Joshua  R.  Giddings  in 
the  House  of  Representatives.  At  President  Lincoln's 
suggestion  he  reluctantly  resigned  his  commission  in  De- 
cember, 1863,  to  enter  .Congress,  where  he  was  the  young- 
est member.  From  that  time  until  1880  he  represented 
his  district  in  the  House,  and  came  to  be  the  Republican 
leader  of  that  body  and  the  party  candidate  for  Speaker. 
It  is  impossible  to  detail  here  his  congressional  services, 
but  he  did  most  faithful  and  valuable  work  as  chairman 
of  the  important  committees  on  military  affairs,  banking 
and  currency,  and  appropriations.  In  the  winter  of  1880 
he  was  elected  U.  S.  Senator  to  succeed  Allen  G.  Thur- 
man,  receiving  the  vote  of  every  Republican  member  of 
the  Ohio  Legislature  in  the  nominating  caucus,  an  honor 
never  before  accorded  to  any  politician  in  the  Buckeye 
State.  Gen.  Garfield  went  to  the  Chicago  convention  as 
the  leader  of  the  Ohio  delegation,  and  when  the  nomina- 
tions were  made  he  presented  the  name  of  John  Sherman, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  a  most  eloquent  speech. 

When  the  balloting  began,  a  single  delegate  from  Penn- 
sylvania voted  for  Garfield.  No  attention  was  paid  to 
this  vote,  which  was  thought  to  be  a  mere  eccentricity  on 
the  part  of  the  man  who  cast  it.  Later  on  a  second 


HIS   NOMINATION    FOR   PRESIDENT.  599 

Pennsylvania  delegate  joined  the  solitary  Garfield  man. 
So  the  balloting  continued,  the  fight  being  between 
Grant,  Elaine,  and  Sherman,  with  Washburne,  Edmunds, 
and  Windorn  in  the  field. 

Some  unsuccessful  efforts  were  made  on  the  second 
day's  voting  to  rally  on  Edmunds  and  Washburne.  Fi- 
nally, on  the  thirty-fourth  ballot,  the  Wisconsin  men 
determined  to  make  an  effort  in  an  entirely  new  direction 
to  break  the  deadlock.  They  threw  their  seventeen  votes 
for  Garfield. 

General  Garfield  sprang  to  his  feet  and  protested  against 
this  proceeding,  making  the  point  of  order  that  nobody 
had  a  right  to  vote  for  any  member  of  the  Convention 
without  his  consent,  and  that  consent,  he  said,  "  I  refuse 
to  give."  The  chairman  declared  that  the  point  of  order 
was  not  well  taken,  and  ordered  the  Wisconsin  vote  to  be 
counted.  "On  the  next  ballot  nearly  the  whole  Indiana 
delegation  swung  over  to  Garfield,  and  a  few  scattering 
votes  were  changed  <to  him  from  other  States,  making  a 
total  of  fifty  votes  cast  for  him  in  all.  Now  it  became 
plain  that,  by  a  happy  inspiration,  a  way  out  of  the  diffi- 
culty had  been  found.  On  the  thirty-sixth  ballot,  State 
after  State  swung  over  to  Garfield  amid  intense  excite- 
ment, and  Gen.  Garfield  was  finally  nominated  on  the 
tenth  day  of  the  convention,  in  a  whirlwind  of  enthusi- 
asm. His  election  followed  by  a  large  majority,  the 
Electoral  College  standing  214  for  Gen.  Garfield  to  155 
for  Gen.  Hancock. 


CHAPTER  LI. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  THE   ASSASSINATION  AND  DEATH  OP  PRE- 
SIDENT  JAMES  A.  GARFIELD— THE  GREAT 
TRAGEDY  OF  THE  AGE. 

Inauguration  of  President  Garfield — Kissing  His  Venerable  Mother — Chief 
Magistrate  of  Fifty  Million  People— Illness  of  Mrs.  President  Garfield — 
Tender  Solicitude  of  the  President  for  the  Welfare  of  His  Wife— She  goes 
to  Long  Branch— The  President's  Plans  to  Meet  Her— His  Arrival  at  the 
Depot  of  the  Baltimore  and  Potomac  R.  R.  at  Washington — His  Buoyant 
Spirits — Joyous  Anticipation  of  Meeting  His  Wife— The  Assassin  Lying 
in  Wait— The  Fatal  Shot — Tremendous  Excitement — The  Wounded  Presi- 
dent— His  Assassin,  Charles  J.  Guiteau — Who  He  is — His  Infamous 
Appearance  and  Character — His  Cool  Deliberation — His  Capture  and 
Imprisonment — A  Thrill  of  Horror  Throughout  the  Country — Removal 
of  the  President  to  the  White  House— Arrival  of  Mrs.  Garfield— Her 
Courage  and  Devotion — The  Fight  for  Life — Anxious  Days — Removal  of 
the  Wounded  President  to  Long  Branch — A  Remarkable  Ride — Great 
Anxiety  throughout  the  Country — Fighting  Death — Slowly  Sinking — 
After  Eighty  Days  of  Unparalleled  Suffering  the  President  Breathes  His 
Last — Grief  and  Gloom  throughout  the  Land — The  Whole  Civilized 
World  in  Tears — Unprecedented  Funeral  and  Memorial  Honors — His 
Burial  at  Cleveland — Attendance  of  Two  Hundred  and  Fifty  Thousand 
People — His  Life  and  Character  Reviewed. 

NO  President  was  ever  inaugurated  under  happier 
and  more  favorable  auspices  than  was  President 
Garfield.  From  the  day  that  the  electric  wires  flashed 
over  the  country  the  unexpected  news  of  his  nomination 
up  to  his  inauguration,  his  popularity  had  steadily  in- 
creased. Of  the  hundreds  of  speeches  which  he  was  called 
upon  to  make  under  all  possible  circumstances  during  the 
campaign  and  after  his  election,  every  one  was  appropri- 
ate to  the  occasion,  and  gave  a  new  revelation  of  his  ver- 

(600) 


MRS.   JAMES    A.  GARFIEU). 

(Enjr.r,d  from  I  photomph,  cipre»,.lj  for  tl,i.  «.,r! 


BEGINNING  OF  HIS  ADMINISTRATION.  6'-U 

satility  and  capability.  His  first  act  after  taking  the  oath 
of  office  at  Washington,  March  4,  was  to  turn  and  kiss 
his  venerable  mother,  who  had  lived  to  see  her  "baby" 
inaugurated  as  chief  magistrate  of  a  nation  of  50,000,000 
people.  His  inaugural  message  was  eloquent,  patriotic, 
and  courageous,  and  was  cordially  indorsed.  The  people 
everywhere  felt  that  it  was  one  of  their  own  number 
whom  they  had  placed  in  the  White  House,  and  they 
knew  that  he  would  not  forget  them,  but  would  sympa- 
thize with  their  toils  and  trials.  Everything  went  on 
smoothly  until  the  President's  appointment  of  Williain  H. 
Robertson  to  the  New  York  collectorship  antagonized 
Senator  Conkling,  who  endeavored  to  have  the  nomina- 
tion withdrawn.  President  Garfield  adhered  to  his  nom- 
ination, and  Senator  Conkling  and  his  colleague,  Mr. 
Pratt,  resigned.  The  Senate  then  confirmed  Mr.  Robert- 
son's nomination  without  opposition,  and  the  President's 
quiet  and  dignified  bearing  throughout  the  whole  contest 
rather  strengthened  him  than  otherwise  with  the  country 
at  large,  though  many  politicians  of  his  own  party  re- 
garded the  alienation  of  Mr.  Conkling  as  something  that 
had  better  been  avoided  than  precipitated. 

Very  early  in  President  Garfield's  administration  Mrs. 
Garfield  was  prostrated  by  illness,  the  result  of  overwork 
and  anxiety,  and  for  a  time  her  life  was  despaired  of. 
The  social  demands  made  upon  her  during  the  cam- 
paign and  after  the  election  at  their  Ohio  home  were  con- 
tinuous and  exacting,  and  she  went  to  the  White  House 
weary  and  worn. 

Mrs.  Garfield  is  a  lady  of  refinement,  devoted  to  her 
family  and  averse  to  display,  although  thoroughly  at 


602  TEN    YEAKS    IN    WASHINGTON. 

home  in  the  best  society.  Her  home  life  and  quiet  has 
always  been  more  pleasure  to  her  than  the  attractions  of 
fashionable  society.  But  from  the  nomination  of  General 
Garfield  until  he  left  his  delightful  home  for  the  last  time 
there  was  no  quiet  at  Mentor.  The  quiet  country  house 
was  turned  at  once  into  a  hotel,  crowded  with  political 
workers  of  aspirants  for  office  from  morning  to  night,  all 
of  whom  had  to  be  courteously  received  while  many  had 
to  be  entertained  with  meals  and  lodgings. 

An  intimate  friend  of  General  Garfield,  who  assisted 
him  "during  the  campaign,  asserts  that  during  a  large  por- 
tion of  the  time  Mrs.  Garfield  and  "Mother"  Garfield 
were  compelled  to  dine  or  lunch  from  forty  to  sixty  per- 
sons every  day,  while  the  children  were  sent  away  at 
night  to  make  room  for  the  guests  who  had  to  be  enter- 
tained. Many  of  these  were  persons  without  claims  of 
any  kind  upon  such  hospitaiity  except  that  they  were 
engaged  in  political  work. 

Then  came  the  excitement  incident  to  the  removal  to 
the  White  house,  the  inauguration,  and  the  daily  necessity 
of  giving  receptions  for  the  thousands  of  sight-seers  and 
office-seekers.  The  break-down  came  at  last,  and  for 
weeks  the  President's  wife  was  prostrated  with  severe 
illness,  her  life  for  a  time  hanging  by  a  thread. 

As  soon  as  she  was  able  to  bear  the  journey,  the 
President  took  her  from  Washington  to  Long  Branch, 
and,  when  her  condition  warranted,  returned  to 
Washington  to  prepare  for  a  trip  through  the  Eastern 
States,  the  central  object  of  which  was  attendance 
upon  the  exercises  of  commencement  week  at  Wil- 
liams College,  where  the  members  of  his  class  were  to 


THE   FATAL    SHOT.  603 

celebrate  the  25th  anniversary  of  their  graduation.  Mrs. 
Garfield's  rapidly  improving  health,  the  prospect  of  a 
week's  recreation  from  public  duties,  and  the  anticipation 
of  renewing  the  pleasant  associations  of  college  life,  all 
combined  to  give  him  great  buoyancy  of  spirits.  He 
was  to  be  accompanied  from  Washington  by  several  mem- 
bers  of  the  Cabinet  and  their  wives,  was  to  meet  Mrs. 
Garfield  at  Jersey  City,  and  arrangements  had  been  made 
at  the  places  included  in  his  tour  for  most  cordial  and 
hearty  receptions. 

Saturday,  July  2,  had  been  fixed  upon  for  leaving 
Washington,  and  on  the  morning  of  that  day  the  Presi- 
dent and  those  of  the  party  who  were  in  Washington 
drove  to  the  depot  to  take  the  special  train  which  was  to 
convey  them  to  Jersey  City,  where  Mrs.  Garfield  was  to 
join  them.  The  President  walked  into  the  waiting-room 
of  the  depot,  arm-in-arm  with  Secretary  Blaine,  toward 
the  door  leading  to  the  train,  when  a  man,  who  had  been 
lounging  about  the  room,  stepped  forward  and  fired  two 
shots  at  the  President  from  behind,  one  taking  effect  in 
the  lower  portion  of  the  body,  the  other  inflicting  a 
wound  in  the  arm.  The  wounded  man  sank  to  the  floor, 
and  was  surrounded  by  an  anxious  and  excited  crowd. 
As  soon  as  possible  he  was  removed  to  the  railroad  oflice 
in  the  building  and  surgical  aid  summoned,  and  after  the 
preliminary  treatment  of  his  injuries  he  was  taken  to  the 
White  House,  where  his  long  and  patient  suffering  1ms 
become  matter  of  history.  The  assassin  was  speedily 
captured  and  conveyed  to  prison,  where  he  was  strongly 
guarded,  as  threats  of  summary  punishment  were  freely 
made  by  the  angry  and  horrified  populace.  His  name 


604  TEN    YEARS    IN    WASHINGTON. 

was  ascertained  to  be  Charles  J.  Guiteau,  a  man  of  noto- 
riously  bad  reputation  and  ill-balanced  mind,  although  he 
possessed  a  certain  amount  of  intelligence  and  shrewd- 
ness. He  had  long  been  an  applicant  for  office,  and  had 
greatly  annoyed  the  President  and  other  official?,  by  the 
persistence  and  impudence  of  his  demands.  Neither  then 
nor  afterwards  did  the  miserable  assassin  express  any  re- 
gret over  his  murderous  deed,  the  only  sorrow  which  he 
expressed  being  that  he  did  not  kill  the  President  in- 
stantly, as  he  had  hoped  and  intended.  His  plans  had 
all  been  made  with  cool  deliberation,  and  his  villainy 
stands  out  without  a  parallel  in  history. 

It  is  impossible  to  express  in  words  the  thrill  of  horror 
which  the  country,  and  indeed  the  whole  world,  experi- 
enced as  the  news  was  flashed  abroad  that  the  President 
had  been  shot.  From  that  moment  until  the  time  when 
his  wasted  form  was  earned  to  its  burial  on  the  beautiful 
shore  of  Lake  Erie,  there  were  no  distinctions  of  party 
and  no  fractional  dissensions  in  the  United  States.  Every- 
thing was  forgotten  and  hushed  in  the  absorbing  hope 
and  agonizing  prayer  that  the  President  might  recover 
and  live  to  complete  the  administration  which  had  been 
so  auspiciously  begun.  With  varying  hopes  and  fears, 
the  whole  world  watched  at  the  President's  bedside,  and 
eagerly  devoured  every  word  of  information  sent  out 
from  the  sick  room  by  the  physicians  and  attendants. 
Mrs.  Garfield,  rudely  awakened  on  the  day  of  the  assassi- 
nation from  her  dream  of  recreation  with  her  husband 
by  the  touchingly  thoughtful  message  dictated  by  the 
President,  that  he  was  hurt,  he  knew  not  how  badly,  and 
sent  her  his  love,  and  wished  her  to  come  to  him  at  once. 


605 

sped  from  Long  Branch  to  Washington  as  fast  as  steam 
could  carry  her,  and,  invalid  though  she  was,  bravely  took 
her  place  by  her  husband's  side,  and  comforted  and 
cheered  him  during  his  long  and  weary  fight  for  life. 
How  grandly  she  rose  to  the  occasion,  how  tenderly  she 
endured  the  weary  weeks,  always  wearing  a  cheerful 
face,  while  her  heart  was  breaking  with  its  cruel  load,  the 
whole  world  knows.  Her  heroic  devotion  to  her  husband 
grandly  typified  the  loyal  and  self-sacrificing  spirit  of 
wifehood,  which  finds  nowhere  more  conspicuous  illus- 
tration than  in  our  American  homes,  and  when  one  of 
the  New  York  merchant  princes  proposed  the  raising  of 
a  fund  to  testify  the  Nation's  appreciation  of  Mrs.  Gar- 
field's  quiet  heroism,  money  flowed  in  from  every  quarter 
until  over  $300,000  had  been  subscribed. 

July  and  August  slowly  wore  aw^ay,  the  hopes  aroused 
by  one  days'  favorable  indications  being  dashed  by  the 
appearance  of  some  new  complication,  or  the  develop- 
ment of  some  alarming  symptom,  and  early  in  Sep- 
tember the  physicians  were  importuned  by  the  President 
to  take  him  away  from  Washington.  He  wanted  most  of 
all  to  go  to  his  Ohio  home,  but  being  told  that  was  impos* 
sible  his  next  thought  was  Long  Branch,  where  he  could 
see  the  ocean  and  breathe  its  life-giving  air.  The  journey 
was  undertaken,  and  so  complete  were  the  arrangements 
and  appliances  for  his  comfort  that  he  endured  the  rail- 
road ride  of  250  miles  with  apparent  advantage,  rather 
than  discomfort.  Weak  as  he  was  he  enjoyed  the  ride, 
and  at  one  time  said  to  Mrs.  Garfield,  "Well,  Crete  (his 
pet  name  for  Lucretia)  this  is  a  great  ride,  isn't  it."  It 
certainly  was  a  great  ride,  and  the  whole  country  stood 


606  TEN   YEARS   IN   WASHINGTON. 

with  bated  breath,  watching  the  telegraphic  reports  of 
the  progress  of  the  swift-moving  train.  Quartered  at 
Long  Branch  in  a  luxurious  cottage  tendered  by  a  British 
subject,  Mr.  Francklyn,  of  New  York,  the  cool  sea-breeze. 3 
for  a  time  seemed  to  send  life  into  his  blood,  and  once  or 
twice  after  his  arrival  he,  at  his  own  request,  was  permit- 
ted to  recline  in  an  easy  position  by  the  window  where 
he  could  look  out  upon  the  ocean.  One  day  while  Mrs, 
Garfield  was  in  the  adjoining  room,  love,  hope,  and  grati- 
tude filling  her  heart,  she  sang  the  beautiful  hymn  com- 
mencing— 

"  Guide  me,  O  thou  Great  Jehovah! " 

As  the  soft  and  plaintive  notes  floated  into  the  sick  cham- 
ber the  President  turned  his  eyes  upon  Dr.  Bliss  and 
asked : 

"Is  that  Crete?" 

"Yes,"  replied  the  Doctor,  "it  is  Mrs.  Garfield." 

"Quick,  open  the  door  a  little,"  anxiously  responded 
the  sick  man. 

Dr.  Bliss  opened  the  door,  and  after  listening  a  few 
moments  Mr.  Garfield  exclaimed,  as  the  large  tears  coursed 
down  his  sunken  cheeks : 

"Glorious,  Bliss!  isn't  it?" 

But  the  hopes  that  were  awakened  were  illusive  and 
short-lived,  and  at  10.35,  Monday  evening,  September  19, 
on  the  anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Chickamauga,  in 
which  he  won  great  distinction  for  personal  heroism  and 
cool,  clear-headed  generalship,  the  earthly  life  of  James 
Abram  Garfield  was  ended. 

The  sad  event  was  announced  in  many  of  the  principal 
cities  by  the  tolling  of  the  bells  at  midnight,  and  never 


THE  FUNERAL  CEREMONIES.  607 

did  the  death  of  a  man  cause  such  general  lamentation 
and  inspire  such  a  universal  outburst  of  public  and  private 
grief.  Dispatches  of  condolence  and  sympathy  were  sent 
to  Mrs.  Grarfield  and  the  State  Department  from  every 
government  in  the  old  world,  and  Queen  Victoria,  mind- 
ful of  that  dark  hour  when  the  noble  Prince  Consort  was 
taken  from  her  side,  sent  touching  messages  of  womanly 
sympathy,  and  directed  her  ambassador  at  Washington  to 
lay  a  rich  and  costly  floral  offering  upon  the  coffin  of  the 
dead  President.  After  funeral  services  at  Long  Branch 
the  remains  were  borne  back  to  Washington  over  the  same 
route  which  the  President  traversed  on  his  way  to  the  sea, 
and  after  imposing  funeral  ceremonies  in  the  Capitol 
building  the  cortege  once  more  pursued  its  mournful  way 
to  Cleveland,  where,  on  Monday,  September  26,  250,000 
people  from  all  parts  of  the  country  participated  in  the 
final  obsequies.  That  day  was  also  observed  throughout 
the  United  States,  and  in  England  and  other  countries  as 
well,  as  a  general  memorial  day,  and  was  marked  by  the 
total  suspension  of  ordinary  business  and  the  holding  of 
public  services  in  all  the  cities  and  towns.  These  observ- 
ances in  this  country  were  invited  by  President  Arthur 
and  the  State  executives,  but  in  truth  no  official  summons 
was  needed  to  stimulate  every  possible  tribute  of  respect. 
The  whole  country  was  in  mourning,  and,  as  it  was  when 
the  Prince  of  Orange  died,  "the  little  children  cried  in  the 
streets." 

President  Garneld  was  large-framed,  large-brained,  and 
large-hearted.  He  was  six  feet  in  height  and  was  a  splen- 
did picture  of  a  man.  His  personal  character  and  habits 
were  clean  and  pure,  and  his  home  life  at  Mentor  or  Wash 


608  TEN   YEARS    IN    WASHINGTON. 

ington  was  simply  delightful.  No  husband  and  wife  ever 
lived  happier  together  than  President  and  Mrs.  Garfield, 
and  no  man  who  honored  his  mother  as  did  President  Gar 
field  could  fail  to  be  idolized  by  his  children.  Five  of 
his  seven  children  survived  him,  two  of  whom,  Harry  and 
James  A.,  entered  Williams  College  as  freshmen  during 
their  father's  illness. 

President  Garfield  was  one  of  the  closest  students  this 
country  has  ever  known.  No  man  at  Washington  ever 
made  so  much  use  of  the  vast  literary  treasures  of  the 
Congressional  library  as  he,  and  when  he  was  tired  and 
worn  by  committee  and  legislative  work,  he  used  to  find 
recreation  in  general  literary  study.  At  the  close  of  a 
long  and  busy  session  of  Congress,  a  caller  found  him  sur- 
rounded with  every  edition  of  the  Latin  poet,  Hroace, 
which  he  could  find  in  the  library,  and  he  was  hard  at 
work  "  resting  himself,"  as  he  called  it.  It  has  been  well 
said,  since  his  death,  by  one  of  our  well-known  scholars 
and  public  men :  "  The  future  historian  will  declare  Gar- 
field  the  most  thorough  student  of  political  problems  in 
the  Presidential  chair  since  John  Quincy  Adams ;  the  man 
of  most  scholarly  breadth  in  statesmanship  since  James 
Madison;  the  most  eloquent  parliamentarian  since  John 
Adams.  His  had  been  a  life,  a  career,  a  character  which 
would  have  satisfied  the  highest  hopes  of  Washington  and 
Jefferson  for  their  successors  in  the  chief  magistracy." 

In  a  word,  James  A.  Garfield  was  a  man  physically,  in- 
tellectually, and  morally  who  was  an  honor  to  his  country 
and  to  his  race,  and  no  more  imperishable  name  will  ever 
adorn  our  country's  annals. 

THE  END. 

(Whole  number  of  pages  with  illustrations,  705.) 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  III 


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